I^LIBRARY ..OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf I -Qi. --^ 



ESSAYS 



DESIGNED TO ELUCIDATE THE SCIENCE OF 



POLITICAL ECONOMY, 



WHILE SERVING TO EXPLAIN AND DEFEND 
THE POLICY OF 



PROTECTION TO HOME LNDUSTRY, 



AS A SYSTEM OP 



NATIONAL COOPERATION FOR THE ELEVATION 
OF LABOR. 



HOEACE GKEELEY. 




PfllLADELPHiXT" 
PORTER & COATES. 



HBibi 

.Cr-8 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869- by 

HORACE GREELEY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York 



BHliEMAN i CO., PRINTERS, 
S. W. corner Seventh and Cherry 6ts., Thiladelphia. 



€o tfje HHemora 



HENRY CLAY, 

THE GENIAL, GALLANT, HIGH-SOULED PATRIOT, ORATOR, ANE 

statesman; the noblest embodiment of AMERICAN 

GENIUS, CHARACTER, AND ASPIRATIONS ; THE 

MAN WHO MOST EFFECTIVELY COMMENDED 

THE POLICY OF PROTECTION TO THE 

UNDERSTANDINGS AND HEARTS 

OF THE MASSES OF HIS 

COUNTRYMEN, 

THIS WORK 

OF ONE AMONG THE MANY WHO STILL LOVE, HONOR, 
AND ADMIRE HIM, 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 



" No doubt, ye are the People, and wisdom will die 
with you," said patient, yet still human Job, when his 
friends had rather overdone the business of reproving, 
exhorting, correcting, and generally overhauling him. I 
am often reminded of the old Patriarch's later and less 
material tribulations, while scanning the lucubrations of 
those who modestly claim for their own school a monop- 
oly of all the wisdom wherewith the science of Political 
Economy has yet been irradiated, and dismiss the argu- 
ments of their antagonists as the sophisms of rapacity 
and selfishness, or of a mole-eyed ignorance and narrow- 
ness unworthy of grave confutation. There are minds 
whereon such majestic assumptions of superior wisdom 
may impose ; but I make no appeal to them. I wi'ite 
for the great mass of intelligent, observant, reflecting 
farmers and mechanics ; and, if I succeed in making my 
positions clearly understood, I do not fear that they will 
be condemned or rejected. 

Had I been able to snatch more time from the inces. 
sant labors and cares of a most exacting vocation, I 
should have presented a more complete and imexception- 



VUl PREFACE. 

able work. I ought to have had at least one full year for 
the preparation of this volume ; whereas, I have given 
it but a portion of my time for six months. I could 
have fortified my positions far more strongly with cita- 
tions from those whose arguments are weighty, and 
especially with those of eminent Free-Traders, had I 
enjoyed a fuller opportunity. But there is an important 
sense wherein my whole past life has been a preparation 
for this undertaking : for the experience and observation 
of nearly half a century, so far as they bear upon the 
sources and currents of industrial prosperity or adver- 
sity, have been freely drawn upon in the composition of 
the following chapters, which embody what I have seen 
and felt far more fully than they do what I have read 
and stiidied. At all events, I cannot hope ever to find 
time to study more profoundly and write more elabo- 
rately ; so those who care to scan my views of the impor- 
tant topic here treated wiU seek them in the volume 
herewith presented. 

At all events, those who read will say that here is no 
artifice, no concealment, no reserve. If Protection be 
indeed the narrow, bigoted, short-sighted, one-sided, self- 
condemned, envious, hateful policy its enemies proclaim 
it, this work cannot fail to reveal the fact, so that it will 
no longer be believed on the mere dictum of Baptist-Say, 
Bastiat, McCuUoch, and Mill. These essays will not dis- 
arm hostility any more than they deprecate criticism. 



PREFACE. ix 

If it he inie that Protection is based on envy or hatred 
of others' prosperity, and seeks to pull them down to a 
common level of obstruction, stagnation, and virtual ruin, 
— if Protection be a device to sell inferior goods at 
extortionate prices, — to enable manufacturers to emnch 
themselves at the expense of involuntary customers, — 
that tact may be demonstrated from the following pages. 
I know that the hurry of preparation leaves my posi- 
tions at many points exposed to cavil ; yet my con- 
fidence that they are based on absolute truth is so 
profound that I heartily commend them to thoughtful 
scrutiny. 

Writing for common people, I have aimed, above all 
things, to be lucid and simple. My illustrations are 
drawn from our National history, mainly from that part 
of it whereof there are many living witnesses ; and I 
have preferred those to whose truthfulness I could per- 
sonally bear testimony. If these shall often seem to the 
fastidious homely and commonplace, I do not believe 
that they will, on that account, be less acceptable to, or 
less effective with, the larger number of my readers. 

Doubtless, some will disrelish my frequent citations 
from the records of our past struggles to establish, on 
the one hand, — to undermine and subvert, on the other, 
the policy of Protection ; but they are not made with- 
out a purpose. For the questions we are about to con- 
sider, the issues we are soon to try, are in essence the 



X PEEFACE. 

same that were passed upon by our fathers ; and mj 
positions are substantially those held by Henry Clay, 
Rollin C. Mallary, Walter Forward, and their compeers, 
in opposition to those of John Randolph, John C. Cal- 
houn, George McDuffie, and Churchill C. Cambreleng. 
There are no stronger arguments for Free Trade to-day 
than those so ably urged by Daniel Webster in his 
speech against the Tariff of 1824, — a very great speech 
indeed, and one which no man now living can surpass, — 
but it did not defeat the passage of the bill, nor prevent 
Mr. Webster becoming in after years a leading champion 
of that Protective policy which he therein assailed so 
forcibly. We who, as boys or as men, were humble par- 
ticipants in the contests for Protection in those days are 
not likely to be dismayed by a reproduction of the argu- 
ments which the American People then debated, con- 
sidered, and condemned, as inapt or unsound. 

We are about to enter, as a people, upon a very gen- 
eral and earnest discussion of Economic questions, and I 
rejoice that such is the case. I welcome the conflict, 
for I feel entirely assured as to the ultimate issue. Bull 
Runs and Chickamaugas may intervene, but I look be- 
yond them to our Atlanta and our Appomattox. 

H. G. 

New Yokk, December 1, 1869. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

r. Labor — Production 13 

II. Commerce — Exchanges 26 

ni. Capital — Skill — Invention — Intellectual Prop- 
erty 40 

IV. M(»NKY — The Balance of Trade .... 54 

V. Paper Money — Interest — Usury .... 68 

VI. Slavery — Hired Labor — Proportion — Coopera- 
tion 81 

VII Monopoly — The Law of Prices — Effect of Du- 
ties on Cost 95 

VIII. Agriculture as affected by Protection — Views 

OF the Fathers 108 

IX. The State — Its Legitimate Sphere — Powers and 

Duties — Free Trade Axioms Considered . 120 

X. Protection for Agriculture 133 

XI. Manufactures and their Needs .... 146 

XII. The Laboring Class — Its Rights, Interests, Du- 
ties, AND Needs 159 

XIII. The Interest of Consumers — Iron .... 171 

XIV. Protection Illustrated — Sugar . . . , 186 

XV. The Harmony of Interests — The Sugar Industry 
of France invigorating other Industries — 

Beet Sugar on its Triumphal March . . 199 



xii CONTENTS. 

XVI. American Ship-Building, Shipping, and Foreign 

Commerce . 214 

XVII. Credit — Its Uses and Abuses — Foreign Indebt- 
edness — Our National Debt .... 233 

XVIIl. What has been elucidating what shall be . 246 

XIX. Taxation, Direct and Indirect .... 264 

XX. Cooperation 273 

XXI. Wool and Woollens . . . . ., » 287 

XXII. Immigration 306 

XXIII. Specific — Ad Valorem — Minimum . . . 323 

XXIV. Conclusions 336 



ANALYTICAL INDEX ..... o.. 356 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



LABOR— PRODUCTION. 

First of Man's material interests, most pervading, 
most essential, is Labor^ or the employment of human 
faculties and sinews to create, educe, or shape articles 
required by his needs or tastes. Though Providence is 
benignant and Nature bomiteous, so that it was possi- 
ble, in the infancy of the race, that the few simple 
wants of a handful of savages might be fitfully, grudg- 
ingly satisfied from the spontaneous products of the 
earth ; and though a thin population of savages is still 
enabled to subsist, on a few fertile tropical islands, with- 
out regular, systematic industry, — their number being 
kept below the point of mutual starvation by incessant 
wars, by cannibalism, by infanticide, and by their vm- 
bounded licentiousness, — the rule is all but inexorable 
that human existence, even, i^ dependent on human labor. 
To the race generally, to smaller communities, and to 
individuals, God proffers the stern alternative. Work or 
perish ! Idlers and profligates are constantly dying out, 
leaving the earth peopled mainly by the offspring of the 
relatively indi;strioiis and frugal. Philanthropy may 
drop a tear by their unmarked graves; but the idle, 
thriftless, improvident tribes and classes will never- 
theless disappear, leaving the earth to those who, by 



14 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

planting as well as by clearing away forests, and by till- 
ing, irrigating, fertilizing, and beautifying the earth, 
prove themselves children worthy of her bounty and 
her blessing. Even if all things were made common, 
and the idle welcomed to a perpetual feast upon the 
products of the toil of the diligent, still, the former 
would rapidly pass away, leaving few descendants, and 
the children of the latter would ultimately inherit the 
earth. 

Labor begins by producing and storing the food and 
fabrics required to shield men from the assaults of hun- 
ger and thirst, from storm and frost, from bleak winds 
and the austerity of seasons and climates ; but it does 
not end here, Man's wants expand and multiply with 
his means of satisfying them. He who would once have 
deemed himself fortunate if provided with the means af 
satisfying his most urgent physical needs, and " passing 
rich on forty pounds a year," learns gradually, as his 
means increase, to number a stately mansion, with spa- 
cious substructures and grounds, a costly equipage, 
sumptuous furniture, rare pictures and statuary, plate 
and pi'ecious stones, among his positive needs. " The 
heart of man is never satisfied " with its worldly 
goods ; and this is wisely ordered, that none should 
cease to struggle and aspire. The possessor of vast 
wealth seems more eager to increase it than his needy 
neighbor to escape from the squalid prison-house of 
abject want. The man of millions, just tottering on 
the brink of the grave, still schemes and contrives to 
double those millions, even when he knows that his 
hoard must soon pass to distant relatives to whose wel- 
fare he is utterly indifferent. The mania for heaping up 
riches, though it has a very material, tangible basis, out- 
lives all rational motive and defies all sensible limita- 
tions. Many a thoroughly selfish person has risked and 



LABOE — PRODUCTION. 15 

lost his life in eager pursuit of gain which he did not 
need and could not hope to enjoy. 

Yet, when poets, philanthropists, and divines, have 
said their worst of it, the love of personal acquisition 
remains the main-spring of most of the material good 
thus far achieved on this rugged, prosaic planet. Co- 
lumbus, wearily bearing from court to com-t his earnest 
petition to be enabled to discover a new world, insisted 
on his claim to be made hereditary Lord High Admiral 
of that world, and to a tithe of all the profits that 
should flow from its acquisition. The great are rarely 
so great or the good so good that they choose to labor 
and dare entirely for the benefit of others ; while, with 
the multitude, personal advantage is the sole incitement 
to continuous exertion. Man's natural love of ease and 
enjoyment is only overborne, in the general case, by his 
consciousness tnat through effort and self-denial lies the 
way to comfort and ease for his downhill of life and a 
more fortunate career for his children. \ Take away the 
inducements to industry and thrift afforded by the law 
which secures to each the ownership and enjoyment of 
his rightful gains, and, through universal poverty and 
ignorance, even Christendom would rapidly relapse into 
utter barbarism. 

But, though Industry is mainly selfish in its impulses, 
it is beneficent, and even moral, in its habitual influences 
and results.\ Closely scan any community, and you will 
trace its reprobates and criminals back to homes and 
haunts of youthful idleness. Of the hundred youth 
this day living in a rural village or school district, or on 
a city block, if it be found on inquiry that sixty are 
diligent, habitual workers, while the residue are growing 
up in idleness, broken only by brief and fitful spasms of 
industry, you may safely conclude that the sixty will be- 
come moral, useful, exemplary men and women, while 



16 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the forty will make their way, through lives of vice and 
ignominy, to criminals', drunkards', or paupers' graves. 
The world is full of people who wander from place to 
place, whining for " Something to Do," and begging or 
stealing their subsistence for want of work, whose funda- 
mental misfortune is that they know how to do nothing, 
having been brought up to just that. They are leeches 
on the body politic, and must usually be supported by 
it in prison or poor-house, and finally buried at its cost, 
mainly because their ignorant or vicious parents culpably 
failed to teach them or have them taught how to work. 
Now they will tell you, when in desperate need, that 
they are " willing to do anything "; but what avails that, 
since they know how to do nothing that is useful, or 
that any one wants to pay them for doing 1 

There have been communities, and even races, that 
proclaimed it a religious and moral duty of parents to 
have each child taught some useful calling whereby an 
honest living would be well-nigh assured. That child 
might be the heir of vast wealth, or even of a kingdom ; 
but that did not excuse him from learning how to earn 
his livelihood like a peasant. The Saracens and Moors, 
who bore the faith of Mohammed on their victorious 
lances to the very heart alike of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
so trained their sons to practise and honor industry ; 
unlike the Turks and Arabs, who, since the decay of the 
empires of Saladin and Haroun al Raschid, have in- 
herited the possessions, but not the genius, of the earlier 
champions and disseminators of their faith. Greek and 
Roman civilization had previously rotted away, under 
the baneful influences of that contempt for and avoid- 
ance of labor which Slavery never fails to engender. 
Not till the diversification of industry, through the 
silent growth and diffusion of manufactures, had under- 
mined and destroyed serfdom in Europe, was it possible 



LABOR — PRODUCTION. 17 

to emancipate that continent from mediceval ignorance 
and barbarism. Not wliile the world still waits for a 
more systematic, thorough enforcement of the principle 
that every child should in youth be trained to skill aiul 
effi,cieucy in some department of usefiU, productive industry, 
can we hope to banish able-bodied Pauperism, with its 
attendant train of hideous vices and sufferings, fi'om the 
civilized world. So long as children shall be allowed to 
grow up in idleness must our country, with most other 
countries, be overrun with beggars, thieves, and miserable 
wrecks of manhood as well as of womanhood. 
\Eveiy child should be trained to dexterity in some 
useful branch of productive industry, not in order that he 
shall certainly follow that pursuit, but that he may at all 
events be able to do so in case he shall fail in the moi-e 
intellectual or artificial calling which he may prefer to it. 
Let him seek to be a doctor, lawyer, preacher, poet, if he 
will • but let him not stake his all on success in that pur- 
suit, but have a second line to fell back upon if driven 
from his first. Let him be so reared and trained that he 
may enter, if he will, upon some intellectual calling in 
the sustaining consciousness that he need not debase 
himself, nor do violence to his convictions, in order to 
achieve success therein, since he can live and thrive in 
another (if you choose, humbler) vocation, if driven 
from that of his choice. This buttress to integrity, this 
assurance of self-respect, is to be found in a universal 
training to efficiency in Productive Labor. 

The world is full of misdirection and waste ; but all 
the calamities and losses endured by mankind through 
frost, drouth, blight, hail, fires, earthquakes, inunda- 
tions, are as nothing to those habitually suffered by them 
through human idleness and inefficiency, mainly caused 
(or excused) by lack of industrial training. It is quite 
within the truth to estimate that one tenth of our people, 

B 



18 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

in the average, are habitually idle because (as they say) 
they can find no employment. They look for work where 
it cannot be had. They seem to be, or they are, unable 
to do such as abundantly confronts and solicits them. 
Suppose these to average but one million able-bodied 
persons, and that their work is worth but one dollar each 
per day ; our loss by involuntary idleness cannot be less 
than $ 300,000,000 per annum. I judge that it is 
actually $ 500,000,000. Many who stand waiting to be 
hu'ed could earn from two to five dollars per day had they 
been properly trained to work. " There is plenty of 
room higher up," said Daniel Webster, in response to an 
inquiry as to the prospects of a young man just entering 
upon the practice of law ; and there is never a dearth 
of employment for men or women of signal capacity or 
skill. In this city, ten thousand women are always 
doing needlework for less than fifty cents per day, find- 
ing themselves ; yet twice their number of capable, 
skilful seamstresses could find steady employment and 
good living in wealthy families at not less than one dollar 
per day over and above board and lodging. He who is 
a good blacksmith, a fair millwright, a tolerable wagon- 
maker, and can chop timber, make fence, and manage a 
small farm if required, is always sure of work and fair 
recompense ; while he or she who can keep books or 
teach music fairly, but knows how to do nothing else, is 
in constant danger of falling into involuntary idleness 
and consequent beggary. It is a broad, general truth 
that no boy was ever yet inured to daily, systematic, 
productive labor in field or shop throughout the latter 
half of his minority, who did not prove a useful man, 
and was not able to find work whenever he wished it. 

Yet to the ample "and constant employment of a whole 
community one prerequisite is indispensable, — that a 
variety of pursuits shall have been created or natural- 



LABOK — PRODUCTION. 19 

ized therein. A people who have but a single source of 
profit are uniformly poor, not because that vocation is 
necessarily ill-ciiosen, but because no single calling can 
employ and reward the varied capacities of male and fe- 
male, young and old, robust and feeble. Thus a lum- 
bering or fishing region with us is apt to have a large 
proportion of needy inhabitants ; and the same is true 
of a region exclusively devoted to cotton-growing or 
gold-mining. A diversity of pursuits is indispensable 
to general activity and enduring prosperity. Sixty or 
seventy years ago, what was then the District, and is now 
the State, of Maine was a proverb in New England for 
the poverty of its people, mainly because they were so 
largely engaged in timber-cutting. The great grain- 
growing, wheat-exporting districts of the Russian empire 
have a poor and rude people for a like reason. Thus the 
industry of Massachusetts is immensely more productive 
per head than that of North Carolina, or even that of 
Indiana, as it will cease to be whenever manufactures 
shall have been diffused over our whole country, as they 
must and will be. In Massachusetts, half the women 
and nearly half the children add by their daily labor to 
the aggregate of realized wealth ; in North Carolina and 
in Indiana, little wealth is produced save by the labor of 
men, including boys of fifteen or upward. When this 
disparity shall have ceased, its consequence will also dis- 
appear. 

And, though Man is first impelled to labor by the 
spur of material want, the movement outlasts the im- 
pulse in which it originated. The miser toils, and 
schemes, and saves, with an eye single to his own profit 
or aggrandizement ; but commodious public halls, grand 
hotels, breezy parks, vast libraries, noble colleges, are 
often endowed in his will or founded on his wealth. 
Whatever the past has bequeathed for our instruction, 



20 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

civilization, refinement, or comfort, was created for us by 
the saving, thrifty, provident minority of vanished gen- 
erations, many of whom were despised and reviled 
througli life as absorbed in selfishness and regardless 
of other than personal ends. How many of those who 
flippantly disparaged and contemned him while he lived 
have rendered to mankind such signal, abiding service as 
Stephen Girard or John .Jacob Astor '] 

He who is emphatically a worker has rarely time or 
taste for crime or vice. Nature is so profoundly imbued 
with integrity, — so implacably hostile to unreality and 
sham, — so inflexible in her resolve to give so much for 
so much, and to yield no more to whatever enticement 
or wheedling, — that the worker, as worker, is well-nigh 
consti'ained to uprightness. The farmer or gardener 
may be tempted to cheat as a trafficker, — to sell honey 
that is half molasses, or milk that he has made sky-blue 
with water, — yet even he knows better than to hope or 
seek to defraud Nature of so much as a farthing ; for 
he feels that she will not allow it. Every thousand 
bushels of grain, wherever produced, cost just so much ex- 
ertion of mind and muscle, and will be commanded by no 
less. Stupidity, seeking to dispense with the brain-work, 
may make them far too costly in muscular effort ; but 
Natiire fixes her price for them, and will accept no dime 
short of it. Work, wherever done, bears constant, em- 
phatic testimony to the value, the necessity, of integrity 
and truth. Carlyle states -^ this more broadly, hence 
more impressively, thus : — 

" It has been written, ' An endless significance has in 
Work : a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles 
are cleared away ; fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately 
cities ; and withal the man himself first ceases to be jungle, 
and foul, unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how, even 

1 Past and Present. 



LABOR — PRODUCTION. 21 

in the meanest sort of labor, the whole soul of man is com- 
posed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself 
to work ! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Eemorse, Indignation, 
Despair itself, all these, like hell-dogs, beleaguering the soul 
of tiie poor day-worker, as of every man ; but he bends with 
free valor against his task, and all these are stilled, all these 
shrink murmuring far oif into their caves. The man is now 
a man. The blessed glow of Labor in him, — is it not as 
purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour 
smoke itself there is made bright, blessed flame ? ' 

" Show me a people energetically busy, heaving, struggling, 
all shoulders at the wheel, their hearts pulsing, every muscle 
swelling with man's energy and will ; I show you a people of 
whom great good is already predicable, — to whom all man- 
ner of good is yet certain, if their energy endure. By very 
working, they will learn ; they have, Antteus-Uke, their feet 
on Mother Fact ; how can they but learn ? " 

Our own great Channiug had, some years earlier, set 
forth the same general .truth, — that of the beneficence 
of Labor as a groundwork of human education and dis- 
cipline, — in terms somewhat less vigorous, but no less 
explicit and positive, than those of the British essayist. 
He says :^ — 

" I do not expect a series of improvements by which the 
laborer is to be released from his daily work. Still more, I 
have no desire to dismiss him from his workshop and farm, — 
to take the spade and axe from his hand, and to make his life 
a long holiday. I have faith in labor ; and I see the good- 
ness of God in placing us in a world where labor alone can 
keep us alive. I would not change, if I could, our own sub- 
jection to physical laws, our exposure to hunger and cold, and 
the necessity of constant conflicts with the material world. 
I would not, if I could, so temper the elements that they 
should infuse into us only grateful sensations, — that they 
should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every 

1 Lectures on the Elevation of the Laboring Classes. By the Rev. 
William Ellerv Channinjr, D. D. 



22 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

"want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to 
our strength and skill. Such a world would make a con- 
temptible race. Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly 
to the striving of the will, — that conflict with difficulty 
which we call Effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make 
robust minds; does not give men a consciousness of their 
powers ; does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, 
to steady force of will, — that force without which all other 
acquisitions avail nothing. Manual labor is a school in which 
men are placed to get energy of purpose and character, — a 
vastly more important endowment than all the learning of all 
other schools.' They are placed, indeed, under hard masters — 
physical sufferings and wants, the power of fearful elements, 
and the vicissitudes of all human things; but these stern 
teachers do a work which no compassionate, indulgent friend 
could do for us ; and true wisdom will bless Providence for 
their sharp ministry. I have great faith in hard work. The 
material world does much for the mind by its beauty and 
order; but it does much more for our minds by the pain it 
inflicts, — by its obstinate resistance, which nothing but 
patient toil can overcome, — by its vast forces, which nothing 
but unremittmg skill and effort can turn to our use, — by its 
perils, which demand continual vigilance, and by its tendency 
to decay. I believe that difficulties are more important to the 
human mind than what we call assistances. Work we all 
must, if we mean to bring out and perfect our nature. Even 
if we do not work with the hands, we must undergo equiva- 
lent toil in some other direction. No business or study which 
does not present obstacles, tasking to the full the intellect 
and the will, is worthy of a man. In science, he who does 
not grapple with hard questions, who does not concentrate 
his whole intellect on vigorous attention, who does not aim 
to penetrate what at first repels him, will never attain to 
mental force." 

Ross Browne, summing up his observations, made 
during a recent tour of the Holy Land, remarks that he 
saw in all that country but one man doing anything : he 
was falling off the roof of a house. Need it be explained 



LABOR — PRODUCTION. 23 

that Palestine is under the sway of a race and rule that 
reject the idea of Protection to Home Industry, holding 
it condemned by the precepts of that Koran which is 
their Bible 1 Labor is amazingly cheap there, — cheap 
as in the day when each of the laborers in the vineyard 
received a penny for his day's wages, whether he had 
worked twelve hours or but one, — yet barely a few of 
the very rudest manufactures are still prosecuted, and 
these are palpably feeble and declining, with the great 
body of the people impoverished, wretched, despairing. 
Well may they be so under a government which (as a 
recent writer fi'om Constantinople reports) charges an 
excise duty of twelve per cent, on ship-timber cut from 
Turkish forests, and an impost of but ei(/ht per cent, on 
like timber imported from a foreign land. No phxnder- 
ing the masses here for the profit of " monopolists " and 
" cotton-lords " : yet the wild Bedouin of the desert 
levies at will on the wretched tiller of the soil ; the 
local tax-collector seizes most of what remains ; and the 
hapless cultivator is driven in the spring to the usurer, 
of whom he borrows, at twenty -five to fifty per cent., the 
means of re-seeding his unfertilized fields, and tlius bo- 
ginning anew his drearj-, hopeless round of famished toil 
and vexatious care. 

The Hon. Robert Dale Owen, who spent several years 
at Naples as Minister of the United States, declares the 
lazzaroni of that great city unjustly stigmatized as in- 
veterate, wilful idlers ; he having found them always 
accepting with alacrity any job that was offered them 
and that they knew how to do. They were habitually 
idle, simply because they could get no work. Let us 
suppose that the new kingdom of Italy were ruled by 
some great genius like Czar Peter or Napoleon I. ; can 
you believe that he would not find or make some way of 
settina; these idle hundreds of thousands at work ] that 



24 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

he "would be withheld from attempting it by some col- 
lege pedant or blear-eyed book-worm, who should magis- 
terially admonish him that governments have properly 
nothing to do with industry or commerce, — that the 
extent of their legitimate function is to keep men from 
breaking each other's heads or picking each other's 
pockets, — that they transcend their sphere whenever 
they meddle with production, and seek to make two 
blades of grass floiirish where but one has hitherto been 
grown 1 Who does not see that to set those thousands 
at work — to make^ them busy, useful, thrifty, — to 
proffer them ample, remunerative, diversified employ- 
ment — is to elevate them morally as well as physical- 
ly, to increase the wealth and strength of the kingdom 
or state ; nay, more, — to elevate the standard of human 
nature and increase the sum of human well-being 1 

But the Turks are slaveholders ; and Slavery does not 
concern itself, unless inimically, with the elevation of 
labor or of the laboring class. The fundamental ideas 
on which Protection is based war implacably on the en- 
slavement of man. Hence, Henry Clay, though a slave- 
holder, was never in sympathy with the Slavery Propa- 
ganda, and never enjoyed its confidence, because he was 
a Protectionist, and it was felt instinctively that he coidd 
not be heartily devoted at once to Slavery and to Pro- 
tection. Hence, John C. Calhoun, thoiigh a Protection- 
ist while in the House, — as he showed in framing and 
advocating the tariff of 1816, — became an extreme, 
intense Free-Trader from the hour in which he presented 
himself to the country as the foremost champion of 
Slavery, not as an evil to be borne, but a good to be 
cherished, perpetuated, extended. " Instinct is a great 
matter " ; and the Southern aristocracy of the last age 
could not help regarding every cotton-factory erected 
within their domain as a nursery and citadel of Abolition. 



LABOR — PRODUCTION. 25 

No matter though only whites were employed iu it, 
no matter though each of these were surcharged with 
pride of caste and negro-hate, they felt that there 
was an inevitable antagonism between a diversified, in- 
telligent industry and their darling institution, and that 
the outbreak of open war between them was merely a 
question of time. The South of 1815-60 had every 
element of manufacturing prosperity but that of intelli- 
gent labor : she could not have this and Slavery together ; 
and her ruling caste, regarding Slavery as the paramount 
good, naturally frowned upon and froze out manufactures. 
An instinct profounder than any logic impelled them to 
this : a like instinct impelled the Congress of 1800-61, 
so soon as the slaveholders had deserted their seats to 
inaugurate the war of Secession, to fi'ame and enact a 
Protective Tariff, 

I insist, then, that the consideration of cheapness, 
though important, is not «7^iniportant ; that " the life 
is more than meat " ; that, in layiug the foundations 
of a national policy, we are to consider not alone b}^ 
what course we may obtain our supply of sheetings, 
flannels, or iron, at the lowest cash price, but how we 
shall most surely and fully develop and employ the 
entire industrial capacity of our people. Even if it 
were as true as it is false, that we might make more 
money by devoting the entire energies of our people to 
the growing of corn or cotton than by a broadly diver- 
sified industry, it would still be a gi'ave, a fatal blunder 
to do this ; because it could not fail to doom the masses 
to relative ignorance and barbarism, — to obstruct their 
intellectual as well as industrial development, and stunt 
their growth in civilization and all the amenities of life. 
Infinite are the uses of Labor ; but its highest and noblest 
fruition is Man ! 



26 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

11. 

COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 

Ours is preeminently an age of Traffic. The rapid and 
vast extension of commerce since the century distin- 
guished by the invention of printing and the discov- 
ery of America ; the appHcations of steam to faciMtate 
and speed the creation of material wealth through man- 
ufactures and its diffusion through transportation and 
trade ; the consequent sudden and vast increase of what- 
ever ministers to the sustenance, comfort, or enjoyment 
of the human race, — have combined to give to Traffic a 
recent growth and development far transcending the 
wildest dreams of antiqviity. The commerce of Thebes 
or of Tyre, of Carthage or of Alexandria in her palmy 
days, was trivial in volume when compared with that 
whereof London or New York is now the focus. And 
the gigantic enterprises now in progress or in contem- 
plation, whereby this continent, having already been 
traversed by one line of railroad through the heart of 
our country, is soon to be belted with at least two more, 
paralleled by similar lines of commimication, by rail or 
by water, across the Isthmus of Darien, that of Tehuan- 
tepec, and the intervening plateaus of Nicaragua and 
Costa Rica, with the no longer problematical ship-canal 
across the Isthmus of Suez, to say nothing of kindred 
undertakings in other parts of the world, presage a still 
further and vaster augmentation of the volume arid 
momentum of international, trans-oceanic and trans-con- 
tinental commerce. In the conception of its votaries. 
Traffic is yet in its infancy, and is on the verge of a 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 27 

development rapid and vast far beyond even its recent 
advances. 

Very naturally, the popular apprehension is dazzled by 
the prospect, as it was, two or three centuries since, by 
the newly expanded possibilities of maritime adventure 
and discovery. The imagination of boyhood is intoxi- 
cated by visions of wealth to be suddenly acquired, of 
ease to be readily secured, through addiction to some 
form of Traffic. Our ambitious, aspiring youth, unless 
educated for professions, forsake, almost en masse, their 
rural homes in quest of mercantile training and a mer- 
cantile career. The ignorant, friendless, penniless negro, 
just let loose from hereditary bondage, drops his detested 
hoe in the half-tilled cotton-field, and hies to the nearest 
city, in the sanguine hope that he may there live lazily 
and luxuriously upon the profits of huckstering, oyster- 
peddling, rum-selling, or some other form of petty traffic, 
or at least as the servitor or menial of one of the more 
favored votaries of some loftier guild of commerce. The 
moderate but certain gains of j)atieut, creative industry, 
and especially of rural industry, seem petty and despi- 
cable when compared with the great prizes sometimes 
drawn in the lottery of Trade. These prizes are paraded, 
noted, discussed, envied ; they fill the public eye and 
command admiring regard ; while the far more numerous 
blanks are unobserved, unregarded, or soon forgotten. 
Of every hundred who embark in traffic, it was long since 
ascertained that a large majority fail, while scarcely one 
in twenty secures and retains a comijetence ; but the 
one challenges attention and fixes regard, while the nine- 
teen are quickly hidden from view by the waters of 
oblivion. The passion for gambling, in whatever form, 
seems as fascinating to the civilized as the savage breast ; 
and no exposure of its perils and horrors suffices to erad- 
icate or fully master it. Individuals repel or vanquish 



28 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

it ; the masses are ever eager to expose themselves to 
immolation on its gory altars. 

And, while all Commerce is thus attractive, that which 
traverses oceans and interweaves the transactions of 
continents naturally proffers the largest prizes and the 
most resistless attractions. Prices are charged and 
profits realized on the products of another continent 
which would be preposterous and unattainable were 
producer and consumer acquainted with and living in 
proximity to each other. The greatest fortune ever 
acquired by an American in Europe was mainly realized 
in a few years by negotiating in England the bonds of 
Several of our railroad companies, and converting the 
proceeds into the rails and chairs required in building 
or renovating the roads of those companies. The colos- 
sal fortune of the Rothschilds had a basis not dissimilar 
to this. Our most eminent and successful New York 
merchant was not in youth trained to commerce, and 
did not contemplate a mercantile career ; but, after 
devoting two or three of the later years of his minority 
to teaching in this city, he returned to Europe to receive 
the modest patrimony bequeathed him by the last to 
die of his progenitors. Having obtained it, and being 
on the point of embarking to return to this, the country 
of his choice, a friend suggested that he migfit largely 
increase his little fortune by investing it at Belfast in a 
fabric of that busy city known as Lace Insertions ; and 
he, though utterly unacquainted with merchandise, fol- 
lowed the advice ; selling the goods, on his arrival in 
New York, for as many dollars as they had cost him 
shillings (sterling), and thus probably trebling his pat- ' 
rimony in the course of two or three months. The 
revelation thus made to him of what might be acquired 
through commerce changed and fixed his destiny ; and 
half a century of persistent, extensive, and. constantly 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 29 

expanding importation and sale of European fabrics, has 
placed him among the foremost in wealth and rank of 
our merchant princes. His has been a most snccessfid, 
brilliant, and honored career ; and yet I cannot doubt 
that he would have been far more useful to his country 
and to mankind had he consecrated his gi'eat abilities 
and tireless, measureless energy to the naturalization on 
our own soil of the useful arts and processes, along with 
the artificers and workmen, whose products he has so 
lai-gely and so profitably imported from the Old World. 

As this avowal brings me into open, direct collision 
with the more widely accredited teachers of Political 
Economy, I pause here to intrench and reconnoitre. 

In my conception, the chief end of a true Political 
Economy is/^Ae couveraion of idlers and useless exchangers 
or t7X(ffi.ckers into habitual, effective producers of wealth. 
If a community whereof one-half live by vocations which 
add nothing to its aggregate of useful products can be 
so organized, so transformed, that the proportion of its 
non-prodixcers shall be reduced one-fourth, its w^ealth, com- 
fort, intelligence, refinement, can hardly fail (other things 
being equal) to be essentially increased by the change ; 
if the proportion of non-producers could thus be reduced 
to one-eighth, the resulting benefit would be doubled. 
And one of the chief waste-gates of human effort is that 
afforded by the consumption of time and energies in the 
transportation across oceans and continents of staples or 
fabrics which might as easily — that is, with little or 
no more labor — have been produced in the region 
where they are required and consumed. 

Understand, once for all, that I do not propose a con- 
travention of the laws of Nature, nor of any of them. 
If my countrymen can only grow coffee or allspice, 
caoutchouc or cocoa, in hot-houses, at many times the 
cost (in labor) of its production in tropical regions, then 



30 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

I would nowise encourage its growth among us at all. 
The free trade badinage about protecting the growth of 
pine-apples in Minnesota, or of arrow-root in Maine, ex- 
tracting sunbeams from cucumbers, &c., &c., is simple 
buffoonery in evasion of the true issue. I quite compre- 
hend that even international and trans-oceanic commerce 
has a beneficent function, — that of diffusing among the 
inhabitants of all zones and countries those natural prod- 
ucts of each to which the soil or climate of another is 
ungenial, so that all may enjoy, in a measure, the bless- 
ings divinely bestowed upon each. And, so far from 
wishing to obstruct or impede such diffusion, I acquiesce 
most reluctantly in the imposition or retention of any 
duty or tax whatever on those products of other climes 
which cannot, becavise of natural impediments, be suc- 
cessfully grown or rivalled on our own soil. Show me 
that Nature has interposed a serious barrier to the 
growth or production of any staple in my country, and 
I will strenuously insist that no duty be imposed on the 
importation of that product unless for revenue, and 
that this shall be removed so soon as the treasury can 
spare its proceeds. 

Now let me show, without reference to existing inter- 
ests, "wherein and why I would apply the principle of 
Protection : — 

Tea is grown almost wholly in China, Japan, India ; 
and, wherever grown at all, in latitudes and climates 
whereof parallels are found in our own country. And 
we have already ascertained by experiment that the tea- 
plant germinates, floTu-ishes, and matures, in upper South 
Carolina and in East Tennessee. Ut should have been 
tested long since at a hundred different points through- 
out the Union ; but there is no room for rational doubt 
that as large an area of this republic as of China will 
produce tea abimdautly and continuously, under proper 
cultivation. \ 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 31 

Now it is inevitable that, so long as the tea drank by 
our people shall continue to be grown in China and 
Japan, the consumers here will pay (quite apart from and 
above any tax or duty imposed on its importation by our 
government) three to six times as much for their tea as 
the Chinese gi-owers receive for it. The old hyson, for 
which our drinkers pay in the avei^age a full dollar 
(si^ecie) per pound, over and above the tax which goes 
into our Federal treasuiy, has doubtless been bought of 
■ the grower for twenty to thirty cents per pound ; the 
residue of its cost to the consumer (less tax) being made 
up of the profits and charges of the various traders and 
forwarders, agents and brokez's, through whose hands it 
has passed on its way from the interior of China to the 
interior of the United States. 

I want to save the millions on millions thus annually 
expended, — • I believe uselessly, wastefully expended. I 
want to divide them between the grower and the con- 
sumer of tea, or to secure them to him where the same 
person shall be both grower and consumer. I believe 
that to pursue this policy is to increase the reward of 
Labor generally, and especially of American Labor. In- 
stead of one thousand persons growing tea in China, one 
thousand more mining gold and silver in Nevada to pay 
for that tea, and other three or four thousands employed 
as merchants, factors, shippers, navigators, canal-boat 
men, brokers, &c., &c., ttc, in transmitting the tea from 
the grower to the consumer, exchanging Jiis product for 
the gold and silver wherewith the Chinese are mainly paid, 
and forwarding that gold and silver (or some equivalent) to 
the tea-grower, I would have two thousands of our own peo- 
ple growing tea, two thousands more producing the various 
staples and fabrics that our tea-growers would require in 
exchange for it, reduce the whole number required to 
effect the necessary exchanges to one thousand, and save 



6Z POLITICAL ECON(^:vIY. 

the gold and silver to reinforce our now dishonored Cur- 
rency and pay off our enormous Debt. 

Now I protest that, in maturing and avowing this con- 
viction, I have been nowise impelled by contempt or 
hate of the Chinese, — of their paganism, their poly- 
gamy, their pigtails, or their reputed fondness for stewed 
puppies. Whatever there may be of evil or of good in 
their peculiarities lies entirely outside of the range of 
my economic conceptions and impulses. Nor have 1 
been swayed by any special addiction to tea, or to tea- 
growing, nor by any desire to enrich present or prospec- 
tive tea-growers, much less to endow them with a 
monopoly, gainful to them but baleful to all others. I 
have no peculiar affection for them, — no desire to pro- 
mote their interest otherwise than as it is identified with 
the general good. I perceive and admit the possibility 
that certain persons might, by an early importation of 
tea-seed, or by growing large quantities of tea-plants for 
sale in advance of most others, secure to themselves 
peculiar advantages ; but this is an incident which I did 
not desire, and care not to obviate. I do not see how 
those persons can be justly reproached as monopolists, 
any more than the grower of a new American grape or 
seedling potato. And, if they should proceed to grow 
tea in advance of their neighbors, and should sell their 
early crops at exceptionally high prices, I should be 
rather inclined to rejoice over than deprecate their good 
fortune, because I am sure it would incite more and more 
to embark in American tea-growing, till the profit there- 
of should be reduced to an equation with that of other 
departments of our National Industry. Unless a regard 
for self-interest has been eliminated from human nature, 
and water has ceased to run down hill, this consequence 
of large profits accruing in a pursuit open to all is inevi- 
table ; and it is this that I seek by Protection to secure. 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 33 

" But how do you know that tea would be cheapened 
to our people by home production 1 " 

I do not know that the seaboard p?-ice would be re- 
duced, though I firmly believe it ultimately would be. 
Of the hundred leading products which we formerly 
iinported almost or quite exclusively, and which we have 
naturalized on our soil by Protection, I am confident 
that not less than ninety are now supplied to our people 
at a lower cash price than they were previously, or could 
now be in the absence of such naturalization. A few 
of them might sell cheaper in the seaboard cities if 
imported ; but they woidd be dearer, in the average, 
throughout the country. Thus the prices habitually 
quoted, of such bulky staples as Salt and Pig Iron, are 
those which rule in New York ; but our home product 
of those important articles is made at various points 
throughout the interior, where they are nearer to the 
great body of our consumers, and hence more valuable 
to them, than if laid down in the Commercial Empo- 
rium. A ton of Saginaw or Kanawha salt, that would 
be twice as dear in New York as one brought from 
Turk's Island, may nevertheless be cheaper to its con- 
sumers in Kentucky or Wisconsin than foreign salt 
could be, even in the absence of any impost at all, — 
the expense of transportation, which enhances the price 
of imported salt to Western consumers, reducing the 
relative cost, to them, of home-made salt. So of every 
staple of considerable bulk or weight. Yet all the cal- 
culations and comparisons of Free-Traders are based on 
the prices which rule in the seaboard cities, where im- 
ported articles are cheapest, and their home-made rivals 
always relatively, and often positively, dearest. 

I may now properly consider the uniform assumption 
of Free-Traders that Protection is a device of wealthy 
capitalists, who, having somehow secured a n^onopoly of 
2* c 



34 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

our markets, wish to be upheld by law in their gainful 
privilege of selling therein bad and dear fabrics in pref- 
erence to such as are good and cheap. All tolerably 
informed persons must be aware that this assumption 
is a flagrant defiance of history. Whoever will consult 
Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactiures, the writ- 
ings of Matthew Carey, Hezekiah Niles, and their com- 
peers, with the speeches of Henry Clay, Thomas New- 
ton, James Tod, Walter Forward, Rollin C. Mallary, and 
other forensic champions of Protection, with the Mes- 
sages of our earlier Presidents, of Governors Simon 
Snyder, George Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, De Witt 
Clinton, &c., &c., cannot fail to note that they cham- 
pioned, not the maintenance, but the creation of home 
manufactures, — not mainly the preservation of existing 
interests and industries, but the naturalizing or calling 
into life of pursuits new to our countrymen ; and this 
not for the sake, primarily, of those who should thus be 
incited to manufacture, or drawn hither from Europe to 
plant their arts on our soil, but for the benefit, dir-ectly 
and mainly, of those who then were, and would proba- 
bly remain, farmers. In their day, manixfactures were 
unknown to or in their rude infancy among our people, 
of whom fully seven-eighths were subsisted by agi'icul- 
ture, and a full tenth by commerce, navigation, and the 
simpler mechanic arts ; leaving but a minute fraction 
engaged in the arduous, difiicult task of naturalizing a 
few of the ruder, simpler manufactures on our soil, with 
scarcely a skirmish-line of legislative defence against a 
powerful, determined, often crushing, foreign rivalry. 
The main considerations which impelled our early 
champions of Protection were fairly and forcibly set 
forth by General Jackson, in his well-known letter to 
Di'. L. H. Coleman, of Virginia, wherein, near the closs 
of owY country's first half-century of independence, and 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 35 

when he had been for thirty years conspicuously active 
in. every sphere of public life, in the very crisis of the 
struggle for Protection as a recognized and cai'dinal fea- 
ture of our national policy, he said : — 

" I will ask what is the real situation of the agriculturist ? 
Where has the American farmer a market for his surplus pro- 
ducts? Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a 
home market. Does not this clearly prove, when there is no 
market either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor 
employed in agriculture ? and that the channels of labor 
should be multiplied ? Common sense points out at once 
the remedy. Draw from agriculture the superabundant la- 
bor, employ it in mechanism and manufiictures, thereby cre- 
ating a home market for your breadstuifs, and disti-ibuting 
labor to a most profitable account, and benefits to the coun- 
try will result. Take from agriculture in the United States 
six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you at 
once give a home market for more breadstufls than all Eu- 
rope now furnishes. In short, sir, we have been too long 
subject to the policy of British merchants. It is time we 
should become a little more Americanized^ and, instead of 
feemng the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own, or 
else, in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we 
shall be paupers ourselves. 

"It is therefore my opinion that a careful tariff is much 
wanted to pay our national debt, and afford us the means of 
that defence within ourselves on which the safety and lil:)erty 
of our country depend, and last, though not least, give a 
proper distribution to our labor, which must prove beneficial 
to the happiness, independence, and wealth of the commu- 
nity." 

I have cited this familiar passage to prove the state 
of facts then existing, and the considerations which im- 
pelled many of our foremost men to advocate Protection 
as a remedy for existing and formidable evils. True, I 
hold the views thus expressed judicioiis and every way 
sound, while by others they are decisively condemned 



36 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and rejected ; but even these must concede their value 
as tefcitimouy, both as to our then subsisting economic 
condition and to the views which impelled our wiser 
statesmen to seek a remedy through Protection. 

Yet again, I call attention to General Jackson's preg- 
nant testimony in exposure of the fallacy which reprer 
sents Free Trade as affording the farmer a choice of 
two markets, while Protection would confine him to one. 
Our markets were then glutted with foreign metals, 
wares, and fabrics, admitted at very moderate rates of 
duty ; yet General Jackson testifies that, " except for 
cotton, we have neither a foreign nor a home market " 
for our agricultural products, and insists that we must 
create one by fostering and building up domestic manu- 
factures. Now it may be said that the British Corn 
Laws {since repealed) were the chief cause of this 
dearth of demand for our food staples ; but the obsta- 
cles interposed by nature to their sale abroad at a profit 
are permanent, and more formidable than those devised 
by man. Those edible products which the farmer grows 
with comparative ease and to greatest profit — grass, 
fruit, vegetables, &c., &c. — must find a market near 
the point of production or they cannot be disposed of' at 
all without ruinous loss. They are too bulky or too 
perishable to bear transportation to distant consumers. 

Some twelve or fourteen years ago (since the British 
Corn Laws were repealed) I visited low^a City, then the 
capital of the State, bal-ely fifty-six miles from the Mis- 
sissippi, with which, as with the whole country this side, 
it was in direct communication by railroad. It was mid- 
winter ; the streets of that city were thronged through- 
out the day by the farmers of the vicinage, each with his 
great wagon heaped with Indian-corn, which he was try- 
ing to sell at fifteen cents per (shelled) bushel. When 
one succeeded (which he did with difficulty, since the 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES. 37 

supply exceeded the demand), he had to take his pay in 
the vilest shinplasters ever fabricated, purporting to be 
notes of the " Bank of Florence," Nebraska, but all issued 
and reissued in Iowa, and occasionally redeemed there at 
ten to twenty -five per cent, discount. It was viseless to 
refuse or grumble, for there was no other money (?) to be 
had, and the farmers must obtain groceries and pay over- 
due bills somehow. This corn was then worth in New 
York at least five, and in New England six times the 
price ruling in Iowa City ; in Old England, doubtless, 
still more : but the cost of transporting it thither from 
Iowa would have eaten up the gross proceeds. Not by 
tariffs on either shore of the Atlantic was corn-growing 
in Iowa rendered thus unprofitable, but by the inevi- 
table cost of transporting so bulky a staple across half a 
continent and a broad ocean in quest of purchasers and 
consumers. It is possible that such cost has since been 
somewhat reduced, but it still amounts to a virtual pro- 
hibition. That the recompense of farming in Iowa has 
since been materially increased, is due mainly to the fact 
that cities, villages, factories, furnaces, fovinderies, &c., 
&c., have meantime been established or enlarged within 
or near her borders, signally increasing the money value 
of her staples, by bringing adequate markets much nearer 
than they wei-e to her farmers. In other v/ords, the 
policy so forcibly commended by General Jackson has 
been adopted, and the results foreshadowed by him have 
been measurably realized. 

And here let me notice the cavil which rims thus : 
" If Protection is good on the large scale, why not on the 
small ] If the United States should be fenced about by 
a tariff, why not Illinois or Rhode Island 1 " In its 
original form, this quip applied to the substitution of 
stoves for fire-places when it had become desirable, 
through the diminution of our forests, to economize fuel ; 



38 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and it ran thus, " If one stove will save half the fuel, 
why not buy two, and save it alH " Such logic may 
provoke a smile, but can hardly require serious refuta- 
tion. The fact that every industrial pursuit, and es- 
pecially every one that requires a heavy concentration 
of capital, skill, machinery, &c., to insure its successful 
prosecution, must have " room to turn itself," — a rea- 
sonably capacious area upon which to find customers and 
consumers, — is too obvious to require demonstration. 
To argue thence that there should be no tariffs is to in- 
sist that, since cattle are benefited by a change of pas- 
ture, therefore the grazing portion of each farm should 
be fenced into so many pastures as there are dscys in the 
year. Canada has cheaper labor and cheaper capital 
than the United States ; yet my question last winter, 
" Why not establish cotton and woollen factories here in 
Montreal ? " was parried by another, " Where are our 
markets ? " — those of Europe being remote and unre- 
munerative, — those of the United States at hand, yet 
virtually inaccessible, — those of British America con- 
venient, but inadequate. The cost of diffusing and ex- 
changing the products of agriculture and manufactures 
respectively throughout a country may be decidedly 
less than if everything needed by its people were re- 
quired to be produced on each square league of its area ; 
though it would nevertheless be ruinous to send the 
ores, cotton, wool, and food of one continent to another, 
and receive back their proceeds in the form of wares and 
fabrics. In this, as in many things, there is a just, be- 
neficent medium between extremes ; and that medium is 
not always determined by the prices that rule in the- 
open market, as I shall aim to show hereafter. 

This, then, is our position respecting Commerce : 
that it has a broad, though not a boundless, field of le- 
gitimate and benignant activity ; that it should be the 



COMMERCE — EXCHANGES.. 39 

Servant, not the master, of Industry ; that it should 
interchange the productions of diverse zones and cli- 
mates, following, in its trans-oceanic voyages, lines of 
lougitude oftener than those of latitude, and aiding to 
disseminate useful arts and processes rather than serv- 
ing to discourage and retard such diflusiou by crushing 
out infantile and crude essays at their establishment in 
countries to which they have hitherto been strangers. 
This they may do, and often have done, hy bringing to 
bear disastrously upon the young aspirants the fatal 
competition of their older and far stronger rivals, located 
in lands where those arts were long since cradled, and 
wherein they have attained, through ages of prosperous 
gi'owth, a ripe and hardy maturity. Such competition 
is neither just in its essence nor benignant in its effects. 
It impels the trained and mailed veteran to mortal com- 
bat with the green, unarmed stripling who is yet a 
novice in the art of war. " Let every one look out for 
himself ! " brayed the donkey dancing among chickens ; 
which might answer for the donkey, but not so well for 
the chickens. Industry has its campaigns and its battle- 
fields, and is not yet beyond the need of intrenchments 
and fortifications. How these are to be constructed, 
armed, and manned, I shall endeavor to indicate in the 
following chapters. 



40 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



III. 

CAPITAL — SKILL — INVENTION — INTEL- 
LECTUAL PROPERTY. 

Capital is the unconsumed and unwasted remainder 
of the fruits or proceeds of Industry. He who spends 
as fast as he earns accumulates no capital : the first man 
who ever produced or fashioned any substance for use 
beyond his instant need was the first capitalist. The 
absolute savage, fised to no place, and living from hand 
to mouth on the spontaneous bounties of Natiu-e, is as 
nearly devoid of capital as a human being well can be. 
The moment he begins to work or save for the satisfac- 
tion of his wants that stretch beyond the present hour, 
he becomes in some sort a capitalist, feeling the instinct 
as well as the need of accumulation. The hireling of 
civilization, who " lives as he goes along," often spending 
by night in dissipation more than he earns by day, and 
usually in debt for board and clothing to the full extent 
of his worldly goods or beyond it, is more destitute of 
capital than the average barbarian. Apart from bank- 
rupts, almost every adult freeman is to some extent a 
capitalist. 

Civilization is founded on accumulated Capital and 
systematic Labor. It cannot dispense with either. 
Though all men should work diligently, efficiently, 
through each day, yet, if they spent as fast as they 
earned, civilized society must perish, and human exist- 
ence be maintained with difficulty, if at all. The bar- 
room loafer who decries Capital could not survive the 
next hard Winter without its aid. He lives, at least 



CAPITAL. 41 

through the inclement season, on that which others 
more provident have saved and stored against a time of 
need. He may or may not render a prompt and fair 
equivalent ; but, in the absence of capitalists, opportun- 
ity to make the indispensable trade would be wanting. 
There is none so poor or wretched that Capital — earned 
and owned by others — has not already saved him from 
perishing of want, as it doubtless wiU do again and again. 
Capital, justly acquired and wisely employed, is every 
one's friend, smoothing the ruggedness and lessening the 
discomfort of even the most forlorn and hapless career. 

Capital is at odds with Destitution when, and only 
when, it monopolizes the bounties of Nature, and either 
denies their use to the needy or exacts an exorbitant 
price therefor. For Nature, though apt to be stem in 
her requirements, does yet garnish the earth at seasons 
with spontaneous fruits of her bounty, — Vegetables, 
Roots, Fruits, Nuts, &c., — at once palatable and nutri- 
tious, — which signally conduce to the sustenance and 
solace of Man. Capital, finding or deeming the par- 
tition of lands indispensable to their thorough improve- 
ment and efficient cultivation, declares the soil, with all 
upon it, the rightful property of designated individuals, 
and makes whoever intrudes thereon a trespasser in viola- 
tion of law. Herein is natural right restricted in the in- 
terest of Property, which, on the other hand, is compelled 
to fence and bolt, lock and guard, against the depredations 
of those who would appropriate and enjoy that which 
they never produced or earned. If the rights of Capital 
were never stretched beyond their proper limits, the 
tendency to override them might be modified. 

In laying down the foregoing premises, I believe I do 
not differ essentially from the accredited teachei-s of 
Political Economy, who have expended many more words 
on the subject ; though I have faUed to recognize the 



42 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

distinction, strenuouslj insisted on by some if not by 
all of them, between Wealth and Capital. All Capital 
is Wealth, of course ; but all .Wealth is not (in their 
view) Capital, which is restricted, in their conception, to 
that portion or kind of Wealth which directly ministers 
to the creation of other Wealth, through the employ- 
ment and recompense of Labor. The distinction seems 
to me unimportant if not wholly illusory. A youth 
just of age works faithfully and lives frugally through 
his first year of independence, and has a net surplus of 
one hundred dollars paid him by his employer at the 
close. This now is his Capital He buys with it a gold 
watch for his own wearing, and now he has no Capital ; 
but to-morrow, having a chance to sell his watch for a 
horse with which he proposes to grow on shares a field 
of corn next season, he makes the trade, and becomes 
again a capitalist. He grows the corn, and, having sold 
it with his horse, at the close of his second year finds 
himself worth three hundred dollars in cash, — all Capi- 
tal ; but, being tempted to marry, he invests it all in a 
house in which to reside after marriage, and, not regard- 
ing this as an element or instrument of production, he 
is again without Capital. It seems to me safer and 
simpler to regard all Wealth as Capital, though for the 
moment it may be but potentially, passively so. This 
by no means ignores the truth that both Labor and Capi- 
tal may be injudiciously, wastefuUy invested or expended, 
nay, — that Labor may be so wretchedly misapplied as 
to produce no Wealth at all. The ruins of ancient capi- 
tals like Tadmor, Thebes, or Palmyra, are not capital, 
and can be made to yield little or no wealth ; the Pyra- 
mids cost a vast amount of labor, yet have no pecuniary 
value ; the remains of the Coliseum or of Pompeii have 
very little. I fully concur in the assumption that a 
prodigal's lavish expenditure no more contributes, in the 



CAPITAL. 43 

large view, to the relief of poverty than to the increase 
of national wealth. The drunken idiot or maniac who 
sows the street with dollars, to be scrambled for by the 
mob, does not befriend — he rather debauches — his scuf- 
fling, struggling, shouting followers. 1 fully insist that he 
w^io makes and saves, though already possessed of vast 
wealth, is a greater benefactor to the poor than though 
he were content to riot, spend, and squander. But, when 
I read that the wages of the poor necessarily rise or fall 
with the increase of the wealth of the rich, I hesitate 
and demur. Put it in the less positive form of the first ^ 
of Mr. Mill's " Fundamental Propositions respecting 
Capital," viz. " That Industry is limited by Capital," 
and I deem it still too sweeping. Do we not all know 
that capital was very scarce as well as dear in California 
throughout the year (1849) following the discovery of 
gold, yet labor has rarely been anywhere in more eager 
demand, or more bounteously rewarded, than just then 
and there 1 To-day, the wealth of California must be 
thrice as much per head as it was in 1849 or either of 
the three following years ; yet labor is neither in such 
eager demand nor so generously recompensed as it then 
was. I am far enough from wishing to assume or incite 
an antagonism between Capital and Labor ; I firmly be- 
lieve that, other things being equal, an increase of the 
wealth of a country per head is advantageous to its 
poorer classes in promising them ampler and steadier 
employment ; yet, in so far as it tends to increase the 
price of lands and other fixed property, and thus impede 
the transmutation of hirelings into independent free- 
holders and artisans who direct their own labor, it is 
I'ather a bane than a blessing to the poor. 

Nor do I admit that Capital must be consumed in 
order to render it productive. It mai/ be consumed in 

1 Principles of Political Economy, by J. S. Mill, Vol. I. Ch. V. 



44 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the process of production, and often is, since use is try- 
ing and most material things are frail and perishable ; 
but the plough that has broken up a hundred fertile acres 
may have only been scoured brighter by the process, and 
the colt that has been judiciously broken and inured to 
labor this year may be only the better plough-horse there- 
fore next year. What is generally true in the premises 
is this : Industry applies itself to the transmutation of 
certain substances into others presumptively of greater 
value. The crop of wheat grown one year, being appor- 
tioned into seed and bread-corn, is in part paid to la- 
borers (directly or indirectly) as the wages of their laboi', 
and in part sowed for next year's harvest ; and the crop, 
if no disaster is encountered, is reasonably expected to 
replenish the farmer's granary and leave a surplus for 
sale. 

The material wealth which has been amassed by man- 
kind throughout thousands of years is of incalculable 
amount and value. Apart from that held by individ- 
uals, the churches and other public edifices, canals, 
roads, railways, bridges, literature, paintings, sculpture, 
&c., &c., though their cost was enormous, are worth far 
more than that. Immense is our indebtedness to the 
genius, industry, and thrift of past ages for the wealth 
they have bequeathed us, and signal our obligation to 
transmit these blessings, not merely unimpaired, but en- 
hanced, to those who will come after us. 

And, however great our obligation to the departed for 
the palpable, material wealth they bequeathed us, they 
have laid us under still greater obligation by their mag- 
nificent legacy of experience and skill. Having this, 
Ave might in time, were they all swept away, recreate 
most of our worldly possessions ; deprived of it, we could 
scarcely, and with great difficulty, preserve our bare 
lives. The teeming millions of China are constantly 



SKILL — INVENTION. 45 

near the brink of starvation,^ which many of them daily 
overpass; less, I apprehend, because of the density of 
their population than of the rudeness and inefficiency of 
their labor-saving devices. On the other hand, so pro- 
digious has been the progi'ess of invention in Europe 
that the steam-engines of Gi-eat Britain alone have been 
estimated as equivalent in force, if not in productive 
capacity, to six hundred millions of men. Cheap beyond 
comparison as is the labor of Eastern Asia, the machin- 
ery of Great Britain competes with it in its own mar- 
kets, rivals it, undersells its products at the very doors 
of the producers, divests them of employment, and 
dooms them to die of famine. In my early boyhood, 
Chinese cotton fabrics, known as Nankins, &c., were ex- 
tensively worn, even by the poor, in New England ; but 
that trade was destroyed by British and American power- 
locms nearly half a century ago ; and now the peasantry 
of China and India are largely clad in the products of 
those looms. Cotton grown in India is extensively 
shipped to England, there spun and woven, returned in 
the shape of fabrics to India, and there worn all but ex- 
clusively by those among whom it was grown, who would 
gladly have spun and woven it for six-pence sterling per 
day's work, yet who paid the cost of two journeys around 
the Cape of Good Hope, that of the British manufacture, 
the interest on its value during its long absence, and the 
])rofits of several mercantile transfers, and yet were sup- 
plied with it in the market of India at lower cash prices 
than her own looms could afford. 

Now I would not have had India rest content evermore 
with her rude, inefficient, antiquated hand-looms, and for 
their sake exclude the cheaper fabrics of the Occident ; 

1 Mr. Burlingame informed me that the estimated loss of life in 
China by reason of the late formidable " Taeping" rebellion was no 
less than twelve milliom of human beings, most of whom died of want. 



46 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

but I would have had her S9,y in effect to her spinners 
and weavers : " Purchase and import, or rival and sur- 
pass, tlie British machinery, and acquire the skill needed 
to work it ; meantime, the duties on imported fabrics, 
whether British or other, shall be fixed so that you can- 
not be undersold and driven from the home market 
while you are making the requisite experiments and 
efforts." I would have done this, had I been in power in 
India, in the interest primarily of my own country and 
her people, but ultimately in that of Labor everywhere, 
and the permanent well-being of the whole human race. 
In the infancy of our country, there were those who 
honestly believed and argued that she should sedulously 
eschew all species of manufactures, and dev^ote her in- 
dustry wholly to agriculture, as the nobler, more health- 
ful, more invigorating pursuit, and that which would 
most surely conserve the virtues and the liberties of her 
people.^ This, in practice, would have constrained our 
people to cling to the coast of the Atlantic and the val- 
leys of the navigable rivers which pay tribute to that 
ocean. True, they would have ultimately constructed 
canals and railroads reaching out into the broad West ; 
but the cost of transporting grain and other bulky 
staples thence to Europe in such enormous quantities 
as would have been required to pay 'for all the wares 
and fabrics we require, would have eaten up three 
fourths of the proceeds, and kept the growers poor and 
in debt evermore. Were " our workshops in Europe " 
(as Hamilton's antagonists contended that they should 
be and remain), we could not have sold abroad our raw 
staples of food aiid clothing in the requisite quantities, 
but must have lived in rude poverty indefinitely. That 
our people are ingenious and energetic is undoubted ; but 

1 See Alexander Hamilton's celebrated Keport, as Secretary of the 
Treasury , on Manufactures — 1791. 



SKILL — INVENTION. 47 

they would have found it no more easy to make brick 
without straw than did the Israelites in tlieir Egyptian 
captivity. No great invention ever yet sprang full- 
armed from the brain of its author ; as a general rule, 
none but a weaver invents or improves a loom ; and 
nearly every machine of great value is the product of a 
score of successive inventions, by nearly so many diflfer- 
ent laborers thereon. Those countries only which cher- 
ish and delight in labor-saving devices have added aught 
of moment to the world's inestimable aggregate thereof. 
Europe could not now afford for a billion of dollars to 
lose the inventions and improvements in machinery for 
which she is indebted to America, and the great mass 
of which, in all human probability, would never have 
been, had the policy of buying from Europe every article 
of manufacture, which marked and fitted the era of our 
colonial dependence, been persevered in to this day. 

Our oldest manufactures are naturally our cheapest 
and best. Europe cannot rival our axes,* adzes, and 
other edge-tools ; nor can she surpass, either in quality 
or cheapness, the spades and shovels extensively made 
by one Massachusetts family throughout the last fifty 
years. Cut-nails are an American idea ; and no other 
nation yet makes them so cheaply or half so abundantly. 
We have begun, after many years' trying, to make 
wrought-nails also by machinery, and will naturally keep 
the lead in this department also. I have heard that the 
screw-auger, whereby the cost of boring holes in timbers 
was reduced more than half, is a Connecticut invention, 
and never patented, though its value to mechanics defies 



1 Colonel Ashbel Smith, first ambassador to Great Britain from the 
Republic of Texas, informed me tiiat he (being a Southi-on) purchased 
in England, on his first visit, a supply of British edge-tools, and sent 
them home for sale; but their qualitv was so strikingly inferior to 
their Yankee rivals, that no one could be found in Texas to use them. 



48 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

computation. The planing-machine, the innumerable 
reapers and mowers, the sewing-machine, and ever so 
many kindred trophies of Yankee genius for invention, 
have enriched not our country only, but the civilized 
world. And, as the cotton-gin would surely not have 
been invented here had not the cotton cultui-e preceded 
and required it, so the arts, in the prosecution of which 
other American inventions were called into being, had to 
be previously known and practised among us, or the 
world must have waited indefinitely for the triumphs 
they incited. We are, I rejoice to learn, on the eve of a 
similar stride in the production of all forms of wrought 
or malleable iron, through a Pennsylvania invention 
whereby the expensive process known as puddling is 
to be superseded or immensely reduced in cost ; and 
a thousand other beneficent applications ' of inventive 
genius to the cheapening of processes, the increase of 
products, are on the point of practical realization. No 
man can truthfully suggest an article which, having for- 
merly been wholly imported, has since, through Pro- 
tection, been so naturalized on our soil that it is now 
produced here nearly to the extent of satisfying our own 
wants, yet which now costs our people more than it did 
when we procured it from abroad. And the area where- 
on such achievements are possible is by no means fully 
occupied. We shall yet make our own crockery and 
finer kinds of pottery, which we still mainly import, 
and shall grow as well as manufacture the silks for which 
we are still mainly indebted to the insects of China and 
the looms of France, we having in California a more 
genial climate for the silk-worm than Europe or Asia can 
boast ; while we are already reeling and spinning, on 
American machinery invented for the purpose, vast 
quantities of raw silk imported in an imperfect or dam- 
aged condition (answering to the " swingle-tow " of flax), 



INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 49 

which all the ingenuity and patient industry of " the 
Flowery Land " had given up as hopelessly intractable 
and worthless. So shall we continue, under a beneficent 
policy of encouragement and support, to develop new 
and larger possibilities of industrial achievement, and, 
in expanding and diversifying our own national industry, 
benignantly stimulate, and ultimately renovate, that of 
all mankind. 

The rights of those who create Intellectual Property 
are less clearly defined — perhaps less capable of unerr- 
ing definition — than those of the producers or trans- 
formers of material substances ; yet they seem to me 
not less real, beneficent, and defensible. Let us suppose 
that four brothers commence responsible life with equal 
patrimonies, equal capacity, and like habits of industry, 
temperance, and frugality. Twenty yeai^s afterward, one 
of them, who has devoted his energies to farming, has a 
fine estate, a commodious dwelling, a handsome herd of 
cattle, a good collection of implements, a library, and all 
the material elements of independence and comfort. A 
second has addressed himself to the construction of 
locomotives, and has done as well thereby as his farm- 
ing brother. A third has given himself up to the study 
of mechanics and engineering, and has, after many dis- 
appointments, perfected a new steam-engine, whereby 
the power required to move a train or boat of so many 
tons at a given rate per hour is reduced at least twenty- 
five per cent. The fourth has addicted himself to 
literature, art, and poetry, and has produced a book 
which one himdred thousand of our people annually 
read, deriving pleasure and instruction therefi'om which 
they would rather pay him for than forego. I ask why 
this inventor, and this author, have not fairly earned, 
and are not as justly entitled to, the price that others 
prefer to give rather than forego the advantage or pleas- 



50 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

lire derived from their products, as are their brethren, 
the farmer and the locomotive-builder, to a like remu- 
neration for the use of their products ] If, as Thiers 
forcibly says,'^ " The indestructible foundation of the 
right of property is Labor," then, surely, the right of 
property in Elias Howe to that combination of the 
needle with the shuttle which gave practical existence 
and value to the sewing-machine, of Alfred Tennyson 
to "The Princess," "Maud," "In Memoriam," and 
" The Lotus Eaters," is as perfect as any right of prop- 
erty can be. For the craftsman merely fashions, adapts, 
or recasts, materials coexistent with the earth, and 
which may be regarded as in some sense once the com- 
mon property of mankind ; while the inventor, the poet, 
builds out into void space, makes chaos luminous, and 
adds potentially, and as it were by original creation, to the 
enduring wealth of mankind. I cannot perceive how or 
why his right of property in his product is not at least 
as perfect and pervading as that of the maker of a 
locomotive, the grower of grain. 

I have considered what has been urged in favor of a 
restriction of this right of property to the material thing 
wrought upon, — to the particular locomotive built by 
the inventor, the author's manuscript copy of his poem, 
— and it seems to me palpably absurd. For what the 
inventor has labored twenty years to perfect is not the 
single particular locomotive on which he expended his 
handiwork, but all locomotives to be thereafter built : 
his efforts were incited and upheld by a desire to make 
all locomotives henceforth less costly or more efficient. 
This he has achieved, or nothing ; herein he has suc- 
ceeded, or not at all. Once completed, the machine 
whereon he has labored so long may accidentally take 

1 The Eights of Property : A Eefatation of Communism and So- 
cialism. By Adolphe Thiers. 



INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 51 

fire and burn to ashes, yet no one, surely, would thence 
infer that his labor had been in A^ain. 

Suppose that one who differs from me on this point 
were to drop in at a friend's house, while some one was 
there reading aloud Childe Harold, and should be asked 
in a whisper by a non-literary acquaintance, "Whose 
poem is that ] " I cannot doubt that he would truly 
answer, "Lord Byron's," no matter though he saw 
the letter-press, and read " Published by Harper and 
Brothers " on the title-page. The rights of author and 
publisher in the premises are perfectly distinct, and no- 
wise clash with each other. The fact that those are (or 
were) citizens of different countries, natives of diverse 
hemispheres, does not vitally affect them. 

I deeply regret that any one who upholds the Rights 
of Labor and the duty of protecting those riglits de- 
volved on Government should question the policy of 
International Copyright. Were there no other reason 
than that afforded by patriotism, I should insist on 
according copyright to foreign authors. In its absence, 
their works are sold in our markets for the bare cost of 
paper and printing, and bought because of their relative 
cheapness by the great mass of our less-instructed, least- 
reflecting readers, whose opinions are thus moulded by 
Bulwer, Alison, Disraeli, Dickens, Michelet, Professor 
Wilson, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Thackeray, Wilkie 
Collins, the Trollopes, far more than by our own best 
writers. I do not regret that foreign authors are -exten- 
sively read here ; I do not deny that some of them are 
eminently deserving of their American popularity ; but 
I protest against the legislation, or lack of legislation, 
on the part of our rulers, whereby foreign works are 
habitually — nay, necessarily — proffered cheaper to 
our people than those of our own authors. This is 
unjust to both alike, — to those whom it deprives of 



52 POLITICAL EtiONOMY. 

readers, and those whom it gives more than their fair 
proportion of readers, but denies compensation for their 
work. Walter Scott barely escaped dying a bankrupt, 
when one cent per volume from his American readers 
would have saved him from pecuniary embarrassment, 
smoothed his downhill of life, and perhaps enabled him 
to live longer and write more and better. I wish we 
had rendered him naked justice. 

As to the abolition of the Patent system, which has 
of late been influentially advocated, I shall be more 
easily reconciled to it when I learn that it is to be swift- 
ly followed by a repudiation of all rights of property 
whatever, — or, more strictly, of all legal guaranties 
and defences of such rights. Whenever the laws of my 
country shall refuse to protect the inventor, they should, 
in simple consistency, bid the land-owner, the bond- 
holder, the merchant, the banlcer, " Take care of your- 
self, and of all that you call your own ! " Assuredly, no 
man's right to the wild lands conceded to his ancestor 
by a European monarch who never saw, and knew not 
how even to 1 lound them accurately, can be better than 
that of Eli Whitney was to his cotton-gin, or that of 
Daguerre to photography. When these shall be success> 
fully denied, be sure that no rights of property can be 
secure. 

" Then, why not make patents and copyright absolute 
and perpetual 1 " is often asked. I answer, there are «o 
absolute rights of property. The land you bought of 
the government yesterday may be taken from you for 
the bed of some highway or railroad to-morrow, and you 
have no redress. All rights of property are held subor- 
dinate to the dictates of national well-being ; and the 
government will batter down or burn to ashes your 
house, if it shall have become (through no fault on your 
part) a harbor or defence of public enemies, and make 



INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 53 

you no compensation therefor. I only insist that intel- 
lectual property shall be recognized by law as standing 
on a common foundation with other property and equal- 
ly accorded the protection of the state and the respect 
of all who hold property no robbery, but justly entitled 
to deference and support from the wise and the good. 

The right of an author to compensation for his labor 
from so many as choose to use or enjoy its product being 
conceded, it would be proper and reasonable for our gov- 
ernment to say in effect to foreign authors : " Since the 
ability of our people to read has been very largely in- 
creased by the systematic appropriation of one thirty- 
sixth of our Public Lands to the support of Popular 
Education, and since most of our States have likewise 
expended large sums in promoting the same good work, 
thereby vastly increasing the sale of books in this coun- 
try, we fix a maximum rate or percentage on the selling 
price which you may exact of our publishers as copyright, 
and with this you must be content." I hold that this 
would be in accord with that provision ^ of the Federal 
Constitution which stipulates that private property should 
not be taken for public use without just compensation. 
I hold that thus may public interest be harmonized with 
private right, and our country made to assume a more 
creditable position among the nations of Christendom. 

1 Amendment V. 



54 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



IV. 

MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 

The general good demanding and being subserved by 
the widest possible diffusion and practice of regular, 
systematic industry, whatever tends to incite to and in- 
duce such industry must be accounted as in so far a 
public good. And prominent among the agencies which 
tend to overcome man's natural indolence is Monet. 
Labor being distasteful, especially to barbarians, the 
realized presence of a strong stimulant to productive 
effort is indispensable to the formation of habits of in- 
dustry. There was never a savage so stolid, so rude, 
or so lazy, that he would not work rather than starve : 
if he famishes through his own fault, he does so because 
he was not suffering from hunger in summer, when he 
should have done the work ; and, now that winter has 
brought absolute destitution, no effort that he could 
make would avail him. " Quashee, up to his ears in 
pumpkin," as Carlyle characterizes the emancipated, in- 
dolent West India negro, is but dimly conscious of other 
and higher wants than those so cheaply, though indiffer- 
ently, satisfied by his abundant food, his narrow, flimsy 
hut, his ell of coarse cotton to cover his loins, and his 
gourd-shell calabash. These may cost him an hour's 
effort per day, — possibly, a day's exertion per week, — 
leaving him the rest of his time for sleep or play ; indo- 
lently changing from sunshine to shade as temperature 
shall dictate. Thus I saw in eastern Kansas, ten years 
since, a score of half-civilized and (I believe) wholly 
christianized Delawares, sitting in company under the 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 55 

shade of the stately forest which belts the streams of 
that region ; men, women, and children, chatting and 
laughing the day out, as they had evidently done through 
many previous and would do through many succeeding 
days, though it was the height of the planting season, 
and the weather and soil most propitious. They played 
through the spring, because they realized no adequate 
inducement to work. Among our half-barbarized pioneers 
of the border, the same tendency is evinced, somewhat 
modified by differences of race, training, and condition. 
I have known frontiersmen of pure New England blood 
who, having moved on from infancy a little in advance 
of civilization, would earn good day-wages by faithfid 
work when destitute ; but who, with a bag of meal, a 
ham or saddle of venison and a bottle of whiskey on 
hand, could by no means be induced to work till these 
ran short, though it was in the midst of harvest, with 
labor in eager demand, and with wages at the highest. 
" What is the reason," asked a friend of one of this 
class, " that you, who always do a good day's woi'k for 
another, never seem to accomplish anything when work- 
ing for yourself?" — "I hate to work for a poor pay- 
master," was the prompt response. To impel uncultured 
races and individuals to work steadily and faithfully, it 
is essential that the inducement should be palpable and 
the recompense imminent. The lowest in the scale of 
civilization will work for prompt pay when pressed by 
want ; while only the enlightened and truly civilized 
will drain morasses and plant foi'ests for the benefit 
mainly of generations yet unborn. 

Money — whose origin is lost in the deep darkness of 
pre-historic ages — is admirably calculated to combat 
and master the baleful spell of indolence. In itself, 
subserving hardly a want, in its attributed, artificial, 
representative character, it inflames, wliile it promises 



56 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

satisfaction to, every material desire. He who might re- 
fuse to work for the grain of the farmer, the timber of 
the forester, the iron of the smelter, the table or bureau 
of the cabinet-maker, may yet labor freely for the money 
of either ; because this will command at will the product 
of either or all of these and of thousands beside. In- 
dustry is thus extended, quickened, intensified, rendered 
habitual, by the adoption and use of Money. And, as 
the labor unemployed on the instant perishes utterly 
and forever, and even involuntary indolence to-day tends 
to voluntary and chronic idleness in the future, it is 
manifest that the comfort, enlightenment and progress 
of the race have been immensely promoted by the crea- 
tion and use of Money. 

Gold and silver, thence termed the precious metals, 
were originally recognized as money for obvious reasons. 
Scarcely subject to oxydation, they are well-nigh imper- 
ishable ; procured with difficulty, and in moderate quan- 
tities, they are of high cost in proportion to their bulk, 
rendering large values cheaply transferable therein ; 
while their beauty and ductility rendered them objects 
of universal desire, even before their extensive use in 
the arts and in the economy of households had induced 
a full appreciation of their intrinsic worth. They owe 
their employment as money to no political favor or pat- 
ronage, since it appears to have preceded the fomidation 
of states or the creation of governments, other than 
those of the most primitive patriarchal stamp. Origi- 
nally valued and transferred by weight (as the gold ob- 
tained by digging and washing on our Pacific slope often 
is to-day), governments long ago increased their utility 
by dividing them into pieces of definite shape and weight, 
and at length stamping or declaring on its surface the 
value of each piece. Modern assay has fixed more exactly 
the value of each piece, which coinage has beautified, while 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 57 

definitely proclaiming that value. Coins have come at 
length to boast a historic worth ; and it is lamentable 
that, through Washington's modesty or ill-judging appre- 
hension, those of this country fail to bear, like those of 
Europe, the likeness of the Chief Magistrate under whose 
Presidency they were minted. The objection that to 
place the head of a President on the coins stmck during 
his term woidd savor of monarchy seems to me childish- 
ly fantastic. Who would be more likely to idolize, or to 
abase himself at the feet of, a Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, 
or Johnson, because of the substitution on our coins of 
his features for the unmeaning figure which (because of its 
cap) is now understood to image and body forth Liberty 1 
Paper Money, though as yet imperfect and liable to 
great abuses, was and is a signal improvement on a cur- 
rency exclusively of coin. Aside from loss by wear and 
by shipwreck, conflagration, or other calamity, coin 
fulfils sluggishly and rudely, in a civilized, wealthy, and 
commercial community, the functions of money. The 
payment and receipt of a million dollars in coin (and the 
transfers of money in tliiscity alone amount to hundreds 
of millions per week) require considerable time and the 
labor of several hands, especially if counterfeits are to 
be watched for and light or clipped coins rejected ; while 
the same million dollars in paper may pass through many 
hands and pay many debts in the course of a winter 
morning ; each ti-ansfer being effected by the deliveiy 
and receipt of a bank check or draft, filled up in a 
minute and passed from hand to hand like a single coin : 
the money which it represents lying all the time quiet in 
the vaults of some bank, which it requires only to make 
good in due time the balance which may thereby be 
scored up against it at the clearing-house. If silver and 
gold were as plenteous as pebbles, it would still be found 
advantageous to create and use paper money, })ecause of 
3* 



58 POLiriGAL ECONOMY. 

its immensely superior efficiency in effecting exchanges, 
squaring accounts, or paying debts. By means of checks 
or drafts drawn against sums deposited in bank, one man 
can receive and pay more money in a day than one 
hundred could do if nothing but specie was recognized 
as money, and if all payments were made in coin. Paper 
money, then, is a labor-saving device of immense capacity 
and efficiency, as clearly so as a modern reaping or sew- 
ing machine : hence, it will be more and more used in- 
definitely, in spite of its frequent and glaring abuses ; 
just as the use of Steam is always extending, in spite of 
repeated and calamitous explosions, which science and 
inventive genius are constantly laboring to prevent or 
diminish, — -mankind never dreaming of discarding the 
use of Steam itself. Counterfeits and kindred frauds 
there would be, even if nothing but coin were accepted 
as Money ; but they would be far less common and less 
disastrous than now : yet the advantages and benefits of 
Paper Money so vastly outweigh its abuses and evils that 
it can nevermore be given up ; and, if Governments were 
unwise enough to proscribe it, the substitute suggested 
by necessity or devised by knavery woiild be found to 
embody all the evils of a legalized Paper Currency with 
but a small share of its benefits. 

A young people, a newly settled or recently civilized 
country, naturally realizes a dearth and keenly feels the 
need of Money. Its wealth is necessarily scanty ; while 
its people are pressed on every side by wants, — wants 
of tools, seed, stock, buildings, <fec., &c. Almost every 
one wants these faster and in larger quantity than he is 
able to pay for ; a great many would like to obtain them 
on credit and pay for them out of the proceeds of future 
harvests or earnings. Such a people have little money 
at the outset, and very little produce to spare for years 
wherewith to procure more.; their labor being largely, if 



MONEY THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 59 

not mainly, devoted to clearing away forests, building, 
fencing, &c., which yield no instant, salable, exportable 
return. The more rapid the growth of such a commu- 
nity, the stronger its tendency to send away its scanty 
stock of Money in exchange for metals, wares, fabrics, of 
which it is in constant and pressing need. Hence, the 
ability of its banks, if banks it has, to maintain specie 
payments, is often sorely tried, and, unless they be man- 
aged with signal probity and circumspection, will some- 
times be overborne. If Paper Money be forbidden by 
its laws, interest will rule high, usury will devour the 
substance of its masses, and the sheritf and the con- 
stable be constantly at work among them, selling property 
at a heavy sacrifice, and paying debts in a ruinous fash- 
ion through the medium of judgments and executions. 
There are counties in this State whose pioneers wrestled 
forty years with the great forests which formerly envel- 
oped them, suffering meantime serious intellectual as well 
as physical privations, which might have been triumphed 
over in half the time had they been fairly supplied with 
Money, or could they even have borrowed it on ample 
security and at reasonable rates of interest. 

Now it does not suffice to say that what they needed 
was not merely Money, or a medium of exchange, but 
Capital ; for they suffered from a want of Money inde- 
pendently of their lack of Capital. The farmer, the 
wheelwright, the manufacturer of wooden-ware, &c., each 
having his scant}^ available capital invested in the imple- 
ments of his industry or the products of his own labor, 
are often exposed to great difficulty and delay in exchang- 
ing what each has to spare for what he most needs, be- 
cause of the dearth of Money. And it is hard for them, 
just as, having gained a foothold, they are beginning to 
produce somewhat to sell, so as to satisfy their most 
urgent needs, to be obliged to give a considerable part of 



60 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

it for counters (for such is the use of Money as Money), 
wherewith to effect their exchanges. Hence, the utihty 
and the popularity in such communities of well-managed 
Banks and their issues. 

I hold that the very general and deeply grounded dep- 
recation of an adverse Balance of Trade, whereby Money 
is carried out of the country and its return precluded, is 
sound and wholesome. The evil contemned may not be 
clearly apprehended, — the popular instinct may not find 
adequate or accurate expression ; yet the uncultured 
masses are on this head wiser than the philosophei's who 
have graciously condescended to illumine their darkness 
and dispel their vulgar prejudices. It is not well for a 
nation to buy more, year after year, than its surplus pro- 
ducts will pay for ; it is not well to import luxuries and 
fripperies that " perish in the using," and export specie, 
or bonds, or any kind of mortgages on posterity, to pay 
for them. The nation which persists in so doing inevi- 
tably plays the part of a prodigal, and invokes the 
heaven-sent penalties of culpable folly. ♦ The disserta- 
tions of the Free Trade economists in contravention of 
this truth assume conditions which do not exist, and 
pummel men of straw of their own creation. To my 
mind, they miss the point entirely. 

Bastiat^ says : — 

" It is a very unimportant circumstance whether there be 
much or little cash in the world. If there is much, much 
is required ; if there is little, httle is wanted for each trans- 
action. That is all." 

MilP says : — 

" The uses of Money are in no respect promoted by increas- 
ing the quantity which exists and circulates in a country ; the 

1 Essay entitled " What is Money? " 

2 Principles of Political Economy, Vol. I. Preliminary Remarks 
Fourth Edition. 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 61 

service which it performs being as well rendered by a small as 
by a large aggregate amount." 

Now I have misread history if the steady diminution 
of the aggregate of Money circulating in the Roman 
Empire, through the constant, insensible draining off of 
Specie to India and China in payment for their Silks, 
Spices, and other luxuries coveted by the rich, was not 
among the most potent causes of the decay and ultimate 
downfall of that colossal fabric. And I am sadly in 
error if the rapid and vast augmentation, after the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus, of the volume of Gold 
and Silver circulating throughout Europe, did not power- 
fully conspii'e with other causes to improve the condition 
of the masses, to increase their comfort, intelligence, 
energy, power, throughout the civilized world. 

But the real matter in debate is not touched by the 
assumption that the instant annihilation of half the 
money in the world would be no calamity, — the half that 
remained answering every purpose, performing every 
function, that the whole now does. True, I demur to 
this proposition ; but I dissent still more strongly from 
the constant assumption of the Free Trade economists 
that for a country to part with half its Gold and Silver 
in payment for foreign fabrics can work that country no 
serious harm. They say : " The bushel of grain that 
formerly cost a dollar now sells for half a dollar \ but 
the rural day's work that formerly commanded a dollar 
now costs but half a dollar likewise ; and so with every- 
thing else : hence (except to debtors) the change Avrought 
is nominal only : who is harmed by it % " 

I answer. Great damage accrues to all the industrious 
and thrifty, but especially to the workers for wages, 
when, through whatever cause, payment in money is gen- 
erally superseded by payment in commodities, — - that is, in 
farm produce, store orders, &c., &c. And this change 



62 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

almost uniformly follows as a natural result a rapid and 
serious diminution of the volume of the currency. 

My distinct personal recollections on this head go 
back to the period of industrial derangement, business 
collapse, and wide-spread pecuniary ruin, which closely 
followed the close, in 1815, of our Last War with Great 
Britain. Peace found this country dotted with furnaces 
and manufactories which had suddenly grown up, dur- 
ing the few last preceding years, under the precarious 
shelter of Embargo and War. These — not yet fairly 
established, in a country whose commerce was almost 
wholly external or confined to the seaboard, — steam 
navigation being yet in its infancy, and canals or rail- 
roads unknown among us — found themselves suddenly 
exposed to a determined and resistless competition from 
abroad. Great Britain, under the segis of her vast naval 
armaments, had pushed her fabrics into almost every 
corner of Asia, Africa, South America, and the isles of 
the sea, meeting no competition but from the products 
of the rudest and most inefficient barbarian rivals, 
ignorant alike of spinning-jennies, power-looms, and 
steam. Of some of her fabrics, great stocks had never- 
theless accumulated, falling behind the fashions, and 
only salable at prices far below cost. These were now 
thrown upon our markets in a perfect deluge, being 
advertised in the Boston journals at " pound for pound," 
— that is, what had cost $ 4.44 (really $ 4.80) to manur 
facture in England; being offered in Boston, duty and all 
charges paid, for $ 3.33. The tariff" of 1816, mainly 
framed by William Lowndes, was intended to afford some 
barrier against this inundation, but proved utterly in- 
adequate, except with regard to coarse cottons and a few 
other comparatively rude products. Our Manufactories 
went down like grass before the mower ; our Agriculture 
and the wages of Labor speedily followed. In New Eng- 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. G3 

land, I judge that fully one-fourth of the property went 
through the Sheriff's mill ; and the prostration was 
scarcely less general in any part of the country. In 
Kentucky, the universal and intolerable pressure of Debt 
incited a popular but illegal overthrow of her judiciary 
and the establishment of a new one in its stead for the 
sole purpose of staying the legal collection of debts ; 
and the conflict of authority and jurisdiction between 
the " Old Coui-t " and the " New Court " convulsed the 
State with faction and anarchy for a number of years. 
Here in New York, the principal merchants united 
(1817) in a memorial to Congress for legislation to save 
our Commerce as well as our Manufactures from utter 
ruin by increasing the Tariff and prohibiting the sale by 
auction of imported fabrics. They say : — 

" Your memorialists, witnessing the sinking condition of the 
commercial interest of our country, have, upon investigating 
the causes, been led to the full conviction tliat nothing short 
of the protecting arm of the Government can rescue it from 
that ruin to whicli it is rapidly approaching. 

" That, since the peace in Europe, tlie interdiction of British 
manufactures on tlie European continent, consjjiring with 
other causes which we sliall notice, has not only occasioned 
our markets to be glutted to an alarming degree, but lias di- 
verted trade from its best and accustomed channels, and given 
it a direction wliich, if pursued, must inevitably ultimate in 
the ruin of the mercantile establishments of our country. 

" Sympathy and patriotism combine to induce us, while on 
this subject, to speak also on behalf of the manufacturing 
interest of the nation. The same causes which are operating 
the destruction of our commercial prosperity are fast pre- 
cipitating our manufacturing brethren into the abj^ss of ruin. 
The fate of the one is necessarily involved in that of the other, 
and the destiny of the nation inseparably interwoven with 
the welfare of both." 

My father migrated from New Hampshire to Vermont 



64 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

in January, 1821 ; and I remained a resident of the lat- 
ter State for the next decade, or from my tenth to my 
twentieth year. During that term, though hiring and 
working for wages were common in Vermont as else- 
where, I am confident that not one dollar in twenty 
there earned as wages or paid for farm produce was 
paid in money. Grain, orders on some "store," &c., 
(fee, were the universal media of payment ; very little 
money was seen or circulated, and that little mainly in 
connection with the " lumbering business," — that is, 
the cutting, sawing into boards, and drawing or rafting 
away, of the scattering pines still hidden in clefts of the 
mountains or in morasses hardly more accessible ; no 
one expected to be paid in money for work, or grain, 
or meat, unless such payment was expressly stipulated ; 
and, when I was apprenticed to the printing trade in 
1826, it was prescribed in writing that I was to be 
allowed my board and forty dollars per annum, payable 
in clothing or store-goods. Such was, even yet, the 
usage, though money, since the passage of the Tariff 
of 1824, was not so lamentably scarce as it had been. 
Barter was still the general rule, as it has long since 
been for years in the payment of mechanics in very 
considerable and growing cities of this State. 

Now, I cannot state the precise extent to which the 
country had been drained of its specie by the excessive 
importations of 1815-24; but I know that our export 
of the Precious Metals within that term left us consider- 
ably more than half the amount we possessed at the 
close of the War. And, before a quarter of our specie 
had gone, — when it was simply realized that it was go- 
ing, — all the channels of circulation seemed to have 
been suddenly frozen. The few who had money hoarded 
and clung to it ; the many who needed sought it anx- 
iously, but in vain. Many banks failed or were wound 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. 65 

np ; taxes, though low, were paid with difficulty ; those 
who sold oiit to migrate westward, and must have some 
money for travelling expenses, parted with lands, cattle, 
implements, crops, furniture, &c., at very low prices. 
I remember seeing a bale of Hops sold at auction by a 
sheriff in New Hampshire (1820) at one cent and a six- 
teenth per pound, — less than $ 25 per ton. I judge that 
more New England families were reduced from comfort 
to want in the years 1817-20 than in the next half- 
century. 

This, then, I hold a fundamental error of the econo- 
mists in question : They assume that, if half the money 
in a country leaves it in payment for goods imported, the 
residue will perform the function previously devolved 
on the whole, save only that there will be a general 
reduction of prices ; I, on the contrary, insist, and appeal 
to the experience of mankind to sustain me, that in such 
case the remainder, so far from subserving the end for- 
merly answered by the larger volume of currency, will 
not even subserve half of it, for it will all but cease to cir- 
culate at all. Money may continue to be, in some vague 
sense, a measure of value ; but it will cease to be usually 
pi'offered and received in payments for Labor, for Produce, 
or for almost any form of commodity. In its absence, 
the people will quite generally be driven back to Barter, 
— a discouragement of industry, and a long stride on 
the downward road to barbarism. 

Let me now deal directly with the Balance of Trade. 
The opponents of Protection have no difficulty in knock- 
ing down the man of straw they have set up for the 
pm-pose, and demonsti'ating that a nation may grow rich 
while the declared or Ciistom- House value of its Imports 
exceeds that of its Exports. Bastiat faii'ly outdoes himself 
in the ffippancy and self-conceit wherewith he shows that, 



66 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

exporting a cargo of Ice valued at $ 1,000, and bringing 
home in exchange therefor a cargo of Lemons, worth 
$10,000, is not a losing business, — as though we did 
not understand that quite as well as he does. It is not 
our position that an importation of Goods valued at 
$ 100,000,000 per annum, balanced by an exportation of 
Produce valued at $ 80,000,000, is necessarily ruinous. 
We quite imderstand that the Produce so valued may 
have paid for the Goods, and even left a balance on the 
right side of the account. The presumption is othei'wise ; 
still, the fact may be thus. We do not determine that 
the balance is against us merely because our Imports are 
officially valued higher than our Exports. 

But when a nation is, year after year, drawn upon for 
coin to pay balances standing against it in the foreign 
marts whither its Produce is sent, whence its Fabrics and 
Wares are imported, — when its Banks, because of such 
drafts, find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to 
maintain Specie Payments, — when the obligations of its 
Government, of its States, provinces, counties, or cities, 
and of its industrial or moneyed corporations, are con- 
stantly tending abroad for sale, even at ruinous rates, 
with no counter-current of securities in the opposite di- 
rection, — when such a country finds its banks founded 
in part on foreign capital, its mines sold out to foreign 
creditors, its railroads in good measure owned and man- 
aged, if not actually constructed, by them, and everything 
tending more and more to make its people toil and sweat 
through future ages to pay barely the interest and divi- 
dends which m\ist necessarily be due from them to 
foreigners, then I submit that the course on which that 
country has entered is perilous, and portends evil at 
hand. I do not insist that a nation should prize gold 
and silver above all other wealth, seeking to import and 
amass them ; I do not say that a moderate efflux of the 



MONEY — THE BALANCE OF TRADE. G7 

Precious Metals from a country which bounteously pro- 
duces them is to be deprecated ; I do not say that a 
nation should never owe a stiver abroad nor import a 
fraction more than its exports in a given year : but I do 
firmly hold that a nation, like an individual, or a family, 
should generally pay as it goes, — should buy no more 
than it can pay for, — should dread running into debt 
and avoid it when it may ; and that the exportation of 
its coin or bullion beyond the amount of its annual pro- 
duct is improvident, thriftless, and tempts as well as tends 
to grave financial disasters. I hold running in debt to 
foreign nations for stuffs, luxuries, and gewgaws, that we 
might well do without, is prodigality, and is defrauding 
our children of their rightful heritage. In time of peace 
and fair harvests, we need not run in debt to foreigners, 
and we should not. Let us cut our coat according to our 
cloth, — live within our means, — earn more or spend 
less, — and try to bring our current expenses within our 
accruing income, so that we may soon begin paying off 
the enormous debt — not this day a dime less than One 
Billion of Dollars — wliich we have unwisely incurred, 
and which our Civil War but partially caused and can 
but partially excuse. Such is the Protectionist view of 
the Balance of Trade. Read Bastiat and his servile fol- 
lowers, and see if they clearly comprehend or honestly 
meet it ! 



68 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

V. 

PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 

If one were to walk up any of our thronged streets, 
and ask every stranger he met, " Would you like to bor- 
row ten thousand dollars 1 " it is probable that, if the in- 
quiry were presumed to be made in good faith, ninety to 
ninety-five of each hundred would- eagerly answer "Yes." 
Ours are a sanguine and an enterprising people, most of 
whom believe that they need but Capital to enable them 
to achieve great results. And yet it is not probable that 
one fourth of those who so borrowed $ 10,000 would ever 
be able to repay it. The capacity profitably and safely 
to employ and invest so large a sum is even rarer than 
its possession. Few learn how to use means much faster 
than they, by industry and management, acquire and 
retain them ; and those most eager to borrow are gener- 
ally the slowest to pay. Of young men who have as yet 
earned little or nothing, I doubt that even so many as 
one in ten would be benefited by a considerable loan, at 
least until they had laboriously earned and honestly saved 
a like amount. 

Still, the desire to borrow, so prevalent with us, rests 
on a perfectly intelligible and unobjectionable basis. An 
extraordinary proportion of our young men aspire to 
position, consideration, fortime, and expect to achieve 
these by Trade, or in some department of Productive 
Industry. Born poor, they seek independence through 
the use of Credit. Others have borrowed, adventured, 
and succeeded : these are conspicuous, and seen of all 
men ; while the far greater number who have failed con- 



PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 69 

clusively, and died or sunk into obscurity, are unnoted 
and soon forgotten. If there were ten times as much to 
lend, there would be no lack, of borrowers, provided the 
security proffered were acceptable. 

To a community thus suffused with the spirit of aspi- 
ration, of adventure, of industrial and commei'cial enter- 
prise, the use of Paper Money is as natural as breathing. 
I do not believe its suppression a possibility, even. If 
Government shoidd proscribe it, it would set Government 
at defiance ; and we should only have a worse Paper Cur- 
rency in lieu of the present. Drive out Nature with a 
pitchfork, says the proverb, and she will return in spite 
of you and yom- pitchfork. So it Would be with Paper 
Cun-ency. 

In California and her adjuncts, Gold and Silver being 
staple products, it was early resolved that they alone 
should be received and circulated as money ; and that 
resolve has been pretty generally lived up to. I cannot 
learn that any of the expected benefits have been real- 
ized. The ruling rate of interest at San Francisco was 
long three per cent, per month on ordinary and at least 
two on the best securities ; it has at length fallen to 
twelve per cent, per annum. I do not understand that 
over-trading has been less common, credit less abused, or 
failures less frequent and disastroiis, there than on the 
Atlantic slope ; nor do I believe that the spirit of rash, 
presumptuous adventure has been at all checked by Hard 
Money and Legalized Usixry. 

I object to legalizing unlimited Usury that it tends to 
put the business of the country, with the use of its 
floating capital, largely into the hands of the more san- 
guine, headlong members of the community, — of those 
who will bid highest for loans, rather than those who will 
use means most discreetly and safely. I am willing to 
see our usury laws so modified that any one may lend 



70 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

money at exorbitant rates, provided he will make his 
own collections and not trouble the State in the premises. 
Let him, incurring no penalty, ask three per cent, per 
day, if he will, and let those who choose pay it ; but I 
hold it contrary to good p(^licy that such rapacity should 
be upheld by law. Let the legal maximum of interest 
be fixed and notorious ; let those who see fit exceed it 
at their own peril ; let their usurious obligations be debts 
of honor, and let those pay them who see fit. The State 
goes far enough when it undertakes the collection of 
debts contracted in accordance with its convictions of 
sound, beneficent policy ; as to all other contracts, let 
them stand or fall as they would do if the State did not 
exist. 

But I differ irreconcilably with those who argue that 
Interest is unjust, — that a creditor should receive the 
amount he loaned, and no more. If an apple-tree of 
four years' growth is naturally more valuable than one 
of one or two years', then it seems clear that he who 
loaned me $ 100, still unpaid, with which I bought a 
hundred apple-trees from a nursery three years ago, has 
now a larger claim upon me than if he had loaned me the 
like sum wherewith to purchase similar trees one year 
ago. So the thrifty farmer who has seed-wheat at sow- 
ing-time, while his poorer neighbors have none, being 
solicited by them to lend it on promise of repayment out 
of the next crop, might fairly say, " If you are to pay 
me barely the quantity lent, I prefer to keep my wheat 
and be sure of it, rather than lend it at the risk of losing 
it." If to be idle half this year involves no penalty 
beyond that of making up the lost hours in some future 
year, indolence would vanquish thrift far oftener than it 
now does. Man's energies are spurred to activity by the 
knowledge that all savings are fruitful, — that the $ 1 00 
earned and saved at one-and-twenty will have become 



PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 71 

$ 1,000, if carefully invested, before its owner is seventy. 
To make men industrious, provident, saving, seems to 
me one chief end of a true, beneficent public policy ; and 
this would be contravened by denying the rightfulness 
of Interest. If he who lends $ 10,000 for a year is enti- 
tled barely to the return of his principal, then he who 
lets a house or farm worth $10,000 is entitled to its res- 
toration intact at the year's end and no more ; and all 
rights of property are limited to its personal use by the 
owner. Evidently, apart from the consideration of jus- 
tice, mankind cannot aftbrd to discourage saving, by 
denying the rightfulness of Interest. 

Banks were originally places where money could be 
deposited for safe-keeping, with reasonable assurance 
that it would be returned on demand ; and such they 
long remained. After a time, the certificates or receipts 
given for sums so deposited passed in trade for the sums 
they severally represented or specified, being simply 
orders on the bank for the transfer or delivery of so 
much money. At length, it was discovered that, so 
signal was the convenience and general acceptability of 
these receipts or tokens, they might safely be issued in 
excess of the coin at any time on deposit, being balanced 
and secured by the notes on interest of borrowers, who 
could be relied on to pay when required. Such in effect 
is modern Banking. There is no deception in the case : 
The holder of the note is well aware that, if every note 
were presented at once, they could not be promptly met ; 
but the bank's creditors are often among its borrowers 
and debtors, as well as its depositors and note-holders, 
and naturally solicitous to maintain its solvency and 
credit ; hence, a bank has very rarely failed except from 
mismanagement and dishonesty on the part of its offi- 
cers, unless caught in the whirlwind of some great com- 
mercial revulsion. And, though bad Banks have inflicted 



72 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

much injury, and even ruin, I cannot doubt that Banking 
has, on the whole, been a benefit to our country, and 
that Paper Money has, in the large view, done us vastly 
more good than harm. 

A currency of Paper exclusively — that is, of promises 
that are not redeemed on demand — is a far more 
questionable blessing. Our Revolutionary War was 
mainly fought upon Continental Money, — the promises 
of States to pay which were never redeemed, and were 
at length, having become worthless, by general consent, 
repudiated. In our Last War with Great Britain, all the 
banks but those of New England suspended Specie 
Payment ; yet the Government, under the pressure of 
necessity, continued to receive their notes for Customs, 
Loans, and Internal Taxes, though their value was un- 
equal and fluctuating. The Government, on the motion 
of Daniel Webster, returned to Specie Payment about 
two years after the War closed, when a part of the banks 
failed utterly and went into liquidation ; the rest re- 
sumed, and went on as before the War. There were 
several other partial suspensions by the banks there- 
after, and one, very general, in 1837, under the pressure 
of a great commercial revulsion; but the Government 
thenceforth collected its revenues in coin, and, despite 
one or two later partial suspensions, went forward on 
a specie basis, until December, 1861, when the banks 
broke down under the enormous requisitions made upon 
them for loans to uphold the prosecution of the War for 
the Union, A moderate issue of Treasury Notes had 
already been made ; these, being receivable for all dues 
to the Government, had been kept at or very near par ; 
but now a bolder and more comprehensive employment 
of the National Credit had become imperative. This was 
ultimately perfected in the Legal Tender act,^ which pro- 

1 Approved February 25, 1862. 



PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 73 

vided at once for a loan of $ 500,000,000 and an issue 
of Treasury Notes of the denominations of $ 1, $ 2, $ 5, 
$ 10, &c., to the extent of $ 150,000,000; each note to 
be a Legal Tender in all payments to individuals and to 
the Government, except that payments into the Treasury 
for Customs (Duties on Imports) and payments out of it 
for interest on the Public Debt should be made in coin. 
These Treasuiy Notes were not only to be received at 
par in payment of Internal Taxes and of subscriptions to 
loans to the United States, but they were fundable at 
the option of holders in the " Five-Twenty " loan created 
by the same act ; so that a holder of " Greenbacks " 
(Legal Tender Treasury Notes), which drew no interest, 
might at any time convert them into bonds drawing six 
per cent, interest in coin, and redeemable after five and 
within twenty years from the date of issue. Beyond 
this, provision was stipulated for " the purchase or pay- 
ment " of at least one per centum annually of the entire 
Debt of the United States out of the residue of the 
receipts from customs after paying the interest as afore- 
said. 

This measure was born of the agonies and perils of a 
great Civil War ; it was (as passed) the work of many 
hands, and was bandied back and forth between the two 
Houses and their conferees, so that it differed widely in 
the event from any original draft or preconception ; yet 
I doubt that so wise and salutary a scheme of War 
Finance had ever been devised by any Cabinet or Minis- 
ter, or adopted by any European Parliament. It was 
guarded at every point, and, though necessarily looking 
to a wide departure from the Specie standard, provided 
thoroughly for an early return thereto. It was deemed 
necessary, a year or two afterward, to eliminate the im- 
portant clause that provided for unlimited funding of 
the TreasTuy Notes at the pleasure of the holdei-s ; but 

4 



74 POLITICAL KCONOMY. 

for which ■vpe should have returned perforce to Specif 
Payments long ago. Simply allowing holders of " Green- 
backs " to convert them at par into " Five-Twenties " 
would have brought them up to par, or very near it, 
soon after the War closed. And now, if the Greenbacks 
were fimdable, as the act aforesaid provided that they 
should be, they would rapidly flow into bonds, and the 
banks, thus deprived of " Legal Tender," would be obliged 
to redeem in coin or fail, insuring general resump- 
tion. 

If we are ever to have a purely Paper Currency, — 
stable, yet elastic ; irredeemable in coin, yet of nearly 
uniform value, — it must inevitably be built on the 
broad foundations of the act of 1862. It should be dis- 
tinctly, avowedly, based on the Public Debt, and each 
note should specify (as the original Greenbacks did) 
'* This note is payable [not in coin, but] in bonds of the 
Consolidated Debt of the United States," each hav- 
ing forty [twenty, thirty, fifty, as may be stipulated] 
years to run, untaxable, and drawing an interest of four 
per cent per annum, payable quarter-yearly. These 
bonds [Consols] should in turn be exchangeable at the 
Treasury for Greenbacks at par ; so that, when Green- 
backs were abundant, they would be converted into 
Bonds or Consols ; when they became scarce, Bonds 
would be presented at the Treasury, and Greenbacks 
issued in exchange for them. I am not sanguine that 
any purely Paper Currency — that is, any Currency of 
Paper not redeemable in coin on demand — will be 
found in practice to subserve the ends of a true Circu- 
lating Medium and Measure of Value ; but, if any wiU 
answer, this seems most likely to do so. 

The idea of creating and maintaining a currency of 
Paper or Credit purely did not originate in the exigencies 
and necessities of War. More than twenty years ago, 



PAl'KR MONEY INTEREST USURY. 75 

Mr. Edward Kellogg, a retired merchant of our City, 
elaborated the plan of such a Currency, and expounded 
it in a volume,^ which was the sequel to and complement 
of one previously put forth by him, entitled. " CuiTency ; 
the Evil and the Remedy." In each of these works, the 
author contends that our monetary system is mistaken 
and oppressive, — that it discourages enterprise, and op- 
presses poverty, while it aggrandizes wealth, enabling 
the few to enrich themselves inordinately at the expense 
of the many. In Mr. Kellogg's view, the monopoly of 
Money by the wealthy few is even a graver fault than 
the monopoly of Land ; the greatest evil of which the poor 
are victims being the high rate of interest and the diffi- 
culty of obtaining money on loan. Mr. Kellogg maintains 
that two per cent, is a high rate of interest, and that 
every one who can give good real-estate security ought 
to be enabled to borrow thereon to the extent of half its 
appraised value, and that the Government should be 
ready and willing to loan to that extent. To this end 
he would establish a great National Bank (called by him 
a " National Safety Fund "), which should lend to every 
citizen requiring it, on a mortgage of real estate worth 
twice the amount, its Legal Tender paper, stipulating as 
follows : — 

No. [689.] Money. Dated [June 5, 1869.] 

^ 500.] The United States [^ 500. 

will pay to the hearer Five Hundred Dollars in a Safety Fund 
note on demand^ at the Safety Fund Office in the City of [New 
York.] 

The above note, designed to serve as money, is not on 
interest ; but the Safety Fund note, in which it is funda- 
ble at the pleasure of the holder, reads thus : — 

1 Labor and other Capital : The Rights of each secured and the 
Wrongs of both eradicated. By Edward Kellogg. 



76 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

¥o. [446.] Safety Fund Note. Dated [Sept. 1, 1870.] 

^ 500.] One year from the [^ 500. 

1st day of May next, or at any time thereafter, The United 
States will pay to A. B., or order, in the City of [New York'\ 
Five Hundred Dollars; and, until such payment is made, 
tvill pay interest thereon, on the 1st day of 'May in each year, 
at the rate of one per cent, per annum. 

The notes secured by mortgage given to the Gov- 
ernment by borrowers as above, will bear an interest of 
07ie cent and one mill per annum, on each dollar borrowed, 
and will b6 payable only at the pleasure of the maker 
so long as the interest shall be duly met. The borrower 
who should object to this rate, or to giving the security 
required, must be hard to please. 

I must demur to several of Mr. Kellogg's fundamental 
assumptions, viz. : " The powers of Money, which alone 
render it useful, are created by legislation ; therefore, 
Money can possess none but legal value." I hold that 
Money had been created, or recognized by common con- 
sent, before governments meddled with it ; that their 
interposition in the premises was but the recognition or 
declaration of a preexisting fact. I do not deny that 
governments can create, have created Money, nor that 
there may be and is Money whose value is representative 
or artificial; I do not deny that this representative 
Money may efficiently, beneficently, subserve the ends 
of that Money which has original, intrinsic value ; but I 
dechne to confound the sign with the thing signified, 
and to suppose that Money may be created by the mere 
fiat of any human power. If such a monetary system 
as is above outlined were adopted, the value of the cur- 
rency thereby provided would be influenced by many 
considerations, whereof its being received in payments 
to and made a legal tender by the Government would be 
two; but others would prove at least equally potent. 



PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 77 

The very rate of interest stipulated, being far below 
what I conceive the intrinsic worth or annual rental of 
Capital, would insure a superabundance of currency, 
quickly followed by an enormous inflation of prices, 
whereby Speculation would be very likely to profit at the 
expense of honest Industry. Dimng the process of wip- 
ing out with wheat at ten or fifteen dollars per bushel 
debts contracted when it was worth but one or two dol- 
lars per bushel, we should have brisk times and an easy 
money market ; yet a large portion of the indebted class 
would be so intent on increasing their own enjoyments, 
or amassing wealth by speculation, that they would 
probably be as deeply in debt at the close as at the be- 
ginning. The necessity of paying other nations for their 
products purchased by us would still exist ; our new 
money would of course be unacceptable to them ; our 
gold and silver would soon have taken wangs and flown 
over sea ; and now the disagi'eeable necessity of paying 
— actually paying — for our Imports, will have returned 
in all its original force. If we buy Five Hundi'ed Mil- 
lions' worth (old style) of Foreign Products per annum, 
we must henceforth pay therefor what the outside world 
will receive as worth that amount ; and this would 
embarrass us then as it does now. Mr. Kellogg holds 
that those who sold us Foreign Wares and Fabrics must 
accept and export our Produce in payment therefor, hav- 
ing no alternative ; and such might be the case at first ; 
but they would stop selling us when they could no longer 
sell at a profit, and constrain us to pay prices in our cvir- 
rency for their goods at which they could afford to pur- 
chase and export our staples. Admit that this scheme 
would lack some of the vices and impediments created 
by the iron money of Sparta, it still seems to me that 
Mr. Kellogg's currency, though at the outset it should 
make money ever so abundant and payments remarkaV)ly 



78 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

easy, would end in throwing us back upon Barter, through 
the instrumentahty of a legahzed currency which must 
gradually lose the character, by failing to subserve some 
of the most essential ends, of Money. 

I have given some consideration to this scheme, be- 
cause the conception of a Currency of Paper purely has 
fascinated many acute minds, and has ardent apostles 
among European Radicals, intent on emancipating Labor 
from what they denounce as the tyranny of Capital. I 
do not say that the plan is impracticable ; I believe in 
Paper Money, and would gladly see its uses and benefits 
extended ; I readily admit that public good as well as 
evil has resulted even from our Irredeemable Paper Cur- 
rency of the last seven years, and that an abundance of 
Money is a blessing, though {like other blessings) it may 
be bought too dearly. The subject of'Currency is one by 
no means exhausted ; the science of Money is still im- 
perfectly known ; and the fact that Capital (not merely 
tokens which represent what does not exist) is really and 
uniformly cheaper in Western Europe than in this coun- 
try, is one of the impediments against which our National 
Industry, and especially our Manufacturing Industry, 
has struggled, and is doomed still to contend. Land is 
so cheap with us that our farmers have an immense ad- 
vantage over their European rivals in the cost of this 
important element of production ; but Labor is relatively 
high with us ; nearly every element of Manufacture is 
dearer here than in Europe ; and herein we encounter 
one formidable impediment to the expansion and pros- 
perity of American Manufactures. Whoever needs more 
Capital than he possesses, and is compelled to borrow, 
must pay a third to a half more annually for the use of 
a certain sum than his British, French, German, or Bel- 
gian rival ; and this interposes a grave obstacle to his 
thrift and success. 



PAPER MONEY — INTEREST — USURY. 79 

" But why cannot we have cheap capital by adopting 
eome such plan as Mr. Kellogg's 1 " 

I answer, Because the use of capital is worth more 
bere than any such plan assumes or supposes it to be ; 
while we might double or treble the volume of our Cur- 
rency, without increasing materially the real aggregate 
of our wealth. We might each be worth more dollars 
than now, though our 7'eal wealth had not increased one 
dime ; just as he who has now an income of $ 5,000 a 
year (in greenbacks) is no better off than he formerly 
was when his income was called $ 3,000 a year (coin). 

To illustrate the natm"e of Interest, I will suppose that 
a hundred farmers of nearly eqvial means inhabit some 
remote, secluded vale among the mountains, having little 
intercourse with the outside world. Their settlement 
being comparatively new and in a mild climate, they 
have thus far done without bams ; but, now that their 
wealth has increased, and more pressing wants have been 
satisfied, they generally conclude that the time has come 
wherein to provide shelter for their stock and their fod- 
der. Yet all cannot erect suitable barns at once : were 
they to do so, their crops must be neglected and their 
food run short : so they confer and agree that one-fourth 
shall build this year, another fourth next, and so on till 
all have barns, — such being the rate at which they 
judge themselves able to supply this common want. B., 
C, D., are to refrain from building this year, lending 
part of their labor or their crops to A., who builds now, 
and taking his notes for their value ; A., C, and D., do- 
ing the like by B. next year ; and so on. Now, Interest, 
in my view, is the consideration for which B., C, D., 
consent to forego building this year and help A. instead. 
Each of the four would gladly have his barn built this 
year ; but A. is the most urgent, and bids most for the 
first use of their conjoint surplus, and so obtains it. 
(Thus many of our Cooperative Building Societies, hav- 



80 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

ing, by small weekly or monthly payments from each 
member, accumulated enough to build one dwelling, put 
the amount up at auction, and that member who bids 
the highest premium has the first house.) Thus is estab- 
lished what I consider a natural rate of interest ; and it 
is one far above Mr. Kellogg's standard. Were his sys- 
tem adopted, too many would seek to borrow the means 
and hire the labor requisite for building, draining, fen- 
cing, and otherwise improving, and too few would be 
left to cultivate the earth or otherwise produce what is 
needed to supply our most urgent wants ; we should 
have new or enlarged dwellings, with more and better 
furniture, but a scanty supply of bread. I deem this a 
natural result of any scheme whereby Interest is de- 
pressed to a fraction and Money created in limitless 
abundance. 

But I do not thence conclude that Paper Money is a 
delusion, and that Coin alone should constitute our Cir- 
culating Medium. Golden yardsticks would measure 
Textile Fabrics with perfect accuracy ; yet it would not 
be well to forbid the use of any other ; since gold is 
scarce and dear, many yardsticks are required, and we 
have those that answer the purpose made of materials 
far cheaper than gold. Have a golden one, if you will, 
at the Treasury, the State House, the City Hall, and 
enact that every one in use shall be tested by and con- 
formed to that ; but to require every yardstick to be of 
gold would absorb in yardsticks too large a share of the 
National wealth, for which we have other and better iises. 
Between the bigotry which regards all Paper Money as 
virtually counterfeit, and the folly which would enrich a 
people by burying them in shinplasters, there is a happy 
medium ; and this medium experience and discussion 
will yet make plain to the great body of those who 
earnestly, dispassionately seek, not personal advantage, 
but the widest and highest public good. 



SLAVERY. 81 



VI. 



SLAVERY — HIRED LABOR — PROPORTION — 
COOPERATION. 

Slavery appears to be, for the second time, dying 
out of the civilized world, wherein its lingering remnants 
can hardly outlast the present centiiry. Yet it so dis- 
appeared once before, and was thereafter revived by the 
Spaniards reducing to bondage the innocent, hapless 
Aborigines of the West Indies directly after the dis- 
covery of those isles by Columbus ; soon followed by the 
introduction of captive negroes from Africa, under the 
specious plea of mitigating the sufferings of the far 
weaker Aborigines, and paralleled by the atrocious decree 
of the Muscovite Czar Boris Godinoff, whereby the rural 
peasantry throughout his dominions were " adscribed " 
or confined to the estates of the nobles respectively; 
being permitted to pass their boundaries only by express 
permission. Negro bondage did not save the fettered 
Indians, who rapidly faded away ; but it was speedily 
communicated to the Spanish Main, and spread like a 
pestilence over nearly all of North as well as South 
America that had as yet been colonized from Europe. 
Labor being in eager demand in all young and growing 
settlements, which are apt to be largely peopled by ad- 
ventiirers who have migrated thither expressly to escape 
the necessity of working, while dollars or other means 
of payment are usually scarce among pioneers, the 
temptation to purchase slaves at the low prices asked for 
them by the early importers from the African coast was 
obviously strong. The negroes, unlike the " Indians," 
4» F 



82 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

were generally robust and muscular ; they were all well 
adapted to the rude, rugged labor mainly required in 
young colonies, where clearing the land of timber and a 
rough kind of agriculture are the main pursuits ; the 
pioneers — of whom many left their native land because 
of a disagreement with its laws or its magistrates — 
were little troubled with moral scruples and seldom ex- 
posed to the censorship of a vigorous public sentiment : 
so Slavery, and kindred aberrations from the straight 
line of eternal right, are apt to take root in them, un- 
noted, or at least unforbidden. Thus, in spite of some 
feeble, ineffective protests, was America, so far as it had 
been Europeanized, all but covered with a black pall of 
bondage a century ago, — as Europe had been fifteen to 
twenty centuries before, and as Asia and Africa had been 
at an earlier day, and in good part still remain. 

In fact, Slavery is probably one of the oldest condi- 
tions of systematic industry. The barbarian, having a 
taste for comforts and even luxuries, yet hating the toil 
whereby they are created or procured, fancies it harder 
to work himself than to compel some weaker or more 
timorous person to labor for his profit, — in his stead. 
So, making war, or finding one ready made, he invades 
in force his enemy's ten'itory, or pushes stealthily across 
its border, and captures men, women, and children, to be 
henceforth constrained to labor as his slaves. Unfortu- 
nate or profligate parents give or sell the children they 
are unable to rear in comfort to the powerful and provi- 
dent, by whom they are bred as servants for life. Thus 
Slavery roots itself in barbarism ; the slave becomes the 
main if not the sole reliance for regular, constant labor, 
which is thence regarded with greater aversion and 
spurned so far as possible by the free as the business and 
badge of serfdom. The formation of a numerous work- 
ing-class rapidly increases the aggregate of comforts and 



SLAVERY — HIRED LABOR. 83 

luxuries ; so that the community gradually emerges into 
a semi-civilization which evermore betrays its barbaric 
origin and genius through duels, street-brawls, and a 
real or affected fondness for " the pomp and circumstance 
of glorious War." A highly cultivated and polished 
caste may be developed under such auspices ; but not an 
intelligent, refined, and truly civilized people. 

These considerations derive importance from the immi- 
nence on this continent of a deluge of Asiatic paganism, 
whereof the opening showers have already reached our 
Western coast. As yet, our Mongolian visitors are sub- 
stantially free to labor as they will and for whom they 
will, so long as they render due obedience to our laws. 
As yet, I judge that the benefits resulting from their 
immigration have decidedly overbalanced the evils. But 
what has hitherto been a rivulet may at an early day be- 
come a Niagara, hurling millions instead of thousands 
upon us from the vast, overcrowded hives of China and 
India, to cover not only our Pacific slope but the Great 
Basin, and pour in torrents through the gorges of the 
Rocky Mountains into the vast, inviting Valley of the 
Mississippi. This prospect demands instant, earnest 
consideration. The stream of Mongol immigration may 
vastly enlarge itself, yet remain beneficent and fertiliz- 
ing ; but not if it is to work (as many apprehend) a 
retrograde change in our industrial organization, and re- 
sult in the establishment of a novel and specious Serf- 
dom but little removed in essence from old-fashioned 
Slavery. 

For the Wages system, with all its defects and abuses, 
is an immense advance upon the mildest and least ob- 
jectionable form of Slavery. The worker for Wages has 
rights which the law affirms and constrains all men to 
respect : his wife and children are his, and in no sense 
another's ; the latter are sometimes invited by the State 



84 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

to partake of the bounties and blessings of an education, 
which may be rudimentary and imperfect, yet is still of 
inestimable value; he is usually a citizen and a voter, 
and may almost always, by good conduct, become either 
or both if he be not already such ; he can often save a 
part of his earnings, and thus gradually win his way 
to independence and competence ; he has always before 
him the prospect of becoming his own master, and even 
the employer of others, — a prospect which should, and 
often does, make him considerate of the rights and sav- 
ing of the property of those to whom he sells his servi- 
ces. He, surely, has never been a slave who rashly 
proclaims the hireling's condition no better than the 
bondman's. 

Yet the Wages system is commendable only when 
placed in contrast with absolute bondage. Regarded 
abstractly, it betrays many glaring imperfections. If 
paid " by the piece " (by tale), the hireling is under a 
constant temptation to slight his work, — to do it so that 
it will pass muster, rather than so that it will render the 
most service. If paid by the hour, day, week, month, or 
year, he is tempted to give time rather than work, — to 
weary out the stipulated period while performing as little 
downright labor as will answer. To secure the most pay 
for the least work is the problem which too often taxes 
the brain of the hireling, tempting him to imitate the 
slave's idleness and eye-service, though with less than 
the slave's justification. The highest average skill and 
efficiency can never be developed through a Labor sys- 
^s>va. so radically vicious. 

Improvidence is another vice inherent in the Wages 
.^stem. The apprentice of yesterday, living on a very 
scanty allowance beyond his board, finds himself to-day 
a journeyman, capable of earning double the sum required 
to satisfy his real needs. He receives, at the close of 



HIRED LABOR. 85 

each week or month, money that he should save and 
safely invest ; but he has not been trained to saving ; he 
has loose cronies and hot passions, which prompt him to 
spend on baneful indulgences and vicious gratifications 
that which should be cherished as the nest-egg of his 
future fortune. Thus he runs through the five or six 
years which intervene between his majority and his mar- 
riage, " sowing his wild oats," only to gather a boun- 
teous harvest of future poverty, infirmity, remorse, and 
premature decay. Nine-tenths of our young men might 
save in those years the means of securing themselves 
against absolute want evermore, — might lay the sure 
foundations of future independence, comfort, competence ; 
yet the great majority fail to do so, partly for lack of 
proper moral training in childhood, partly through the 
influence of prodigal and vicious associates, yet partly 
also because the Wages system does not prompt to fore- 
cast and saving, but rather to present gratification and 
indulgence in the ftillest measure attainable. The young 
man who finds himself, for the first time, the master of 
an income twice as large as is required to suppl}^ his real 
needs, and surroimded by shopmates and other familiars 
who have made it their rule of life to " live as they go," 
will very generally fall into their ways, acquire their 
habits, and imbibe, if not outdo, their vices. Culpable 
as he may be, the system which afforded him the 
means of lavish outlay, and presented no counter induce- 
ment ta save and thrive, is by no means to be accounted 
guiltless. 

The Wages system foments hostility between Capital 
and Labor, employer and employed. The latter feels no 
direct, tangible interest in the prosperity of the business 
whence he draws his subsistence ; his sole concern being as 
to the amount of his dividend therefrom. Is he engaged 
in ujiking Iron 1 What cares he for the market price of 



86 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Iron ? He must have his wages, whether his employer 
is working at a profit or at a loss ; that is not his affair. 
If Iron were suddenly to fall twenty-five per cent, he 
could with difficulty, if at all, be made to realize that he 
ought to work any cheaper than before. And, indeed, 
since his employer would be very unlikely to volunteer 
an increase of wages because the price of iron had sud- 
denly risen twenty-five per cent, he is right in resisting 
a reduction so long as he safely may. Still, the fact that 
a vicious system has placed the interests of employer and 
employed in seeming if not real antagonism weakens 
and disorganizes, not that trade merely, but Production 
in general. Industry can never exert its due influence 
over legislation and government imtil the, interests of 
employer and employed shall have been not merely 
harmonized in fact, but the parties made to feel that 
they are so. 

The Wages system works habitual injustice between 
man and man. I do not believe that employers are 
habitual oppressors, — that the current rates of wages 
are uniformly or generally too low. On the contrary, I 
hold that — at least in this country, where every one 
may have land for the asking and become his own em- 
ployer if he will — the average range of wages is sub- 
stantially fair and just. I see young men in thousands 
leaving the farms on which they were reared, and which 
they have at length inherited, to earn wages in cities and. 
villages ; and I cannot but feel that they do this mainly 
under the promptings of self-interest, — do it because 
they can thus earn more, enjoy more, than if they re- 
mained at home and employed themselves. He who, 
being able to do thus, sells his services to another, there- 
by confesses that the wages he receives are more than 
he could earn by working for himself. Admit that the 
employer procures the labor and skill he needs at the 



HIRED LABOR. 87 

lowest market rates (which is generally, though not uni- 
formly, the case), it is equally clear that the employed 
usually, if not always, sells his services for the most that 
any one will give for them : so that if A. works for B. for 
less than A. deems his labor worth, it is clear that others 
are of B.'s rather than A.'s opinion ; since, if they were 
not, some one else would secure those services by offer- 
ing a higher price for them. And if A. blames B. for 
offering so little, he ought still more to blame others, 
who offer either less or nothing at all. 

And, while I hold Wages in general the fair equiva- 
lent of the services they buy, I see clearly that they are 
at best a rude approximation to justice, regarded in their 
application to individual cases. Here are one hundred 
employes in a shop or factory, each working for an estab- 
lished and uniform rate of weekly or monthly pay. But 
their work is not of uniform value, — not within twenty- 
five per cent, of it. One is a skilful, thoroughly instruct- 
ed craftsman, who does a man's full work, and turns out 
none but the best products ; another comes to work late 
and irregularly, wastes time in every way, can barely 
pass muster as an artisan, and his handiwork nan'owly 
escapes condemnation. These men's services are not of 
equal value, and probably never will be ; and the fact 
that their remuneration is equal tends to discourage ex- 
cellence and fill our shops and factories with slovenly, 
inert, half-taught journeymen. This is not quite so bad 
as Slavery, wherein the slave is deterred from evincing 
unusual skill, diligence, efficiency, lest he should thereby 
strengthen the barrier l)etween him and freedom, by in- 
creasing his master's estimate of his pecuniary value ; 
but the vice of the system is rather inferior in degree to 
than different in kind from that. 

Having overthrown Slavery, we must gradually out- 
grow the ineradicable vices of the Wages system. These 



»« POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

are not imbedded in political institutions, unjust laws, 
and atrocious judicial decisions ; so they cannot be as- 
sailed by storm and overthrown by superior force as 
Slavery was, — they must be slowly sapped, patiently 
undermined, and gradually replaced by a better arrange- 
ment. This work begins with the immense advantage 
of an open field for inquiry and discussion. Slavery 
would not — perhaps could not — tolerate criticism, but 
promptly suppressed opposition and silenced cavil by the 
revolver and Bowie-knife. The Wages system can claim 
no such immunity from criticism, but must plead, when- 
ever arraigned, at the bar of reason. Thus far, it only 
demurs, — " Show us your better plan for inciting and 
rewarding universal Industry, and prove it not only 
ideally just but practically fitted to endure the shocks 
and buffets of conflicting interests, jealousies, rivalries, 
and mutual distrusts." Here the controversy halts — 
must halt — to await practical demonstrations. It is 
idle to criticise what is, unless we are prepared to show 
that something better is ready to take its place, and 
keep it. 

There is this to be said for the Wages system, — that 
the world's necessary work does get done by it, — imper- 
fectly, if you will, and with but an approach to justice, 
yet still much better, and with less hardship, than imder 
any system which preceded it. Whenever some better 
system shall have been, not merely devised, but put into 
actual operation, and shall have proved capable of hold- 
ing its ground for years against all the assaults of hu- 
man perversity, selfishness, and foll}^, then we may confi- 
dently look for its wide and ultimately general adoption. 

The rude outlines of such a substitute are already 
visible. The Whaling industry of our country has been 
generally prosecuted on a basis of partnership for a 
century. The entire venture is represented by (we will 



COOPERATION. 89 

say one hundred) shares, whereof the owners of the 
vessel are allotted a certain number, those who supply 
the outfit perhaps as many more, leaving (say) fifty, 
whereof the captain has (say) ten, the mate five, the 
minor officers three, the experienced whalers two, and 
green hands one each, until the full number is ap- 
portioned. If, now, the venture prove successful, — if 
the vessel is rapidly filled with oil and bone, and returns 
in triumph after a comparatively short absence, — every 
one interested shares ratably in her good fortune ; if 
she has bad luck, her crew may come home poor as they 
departed, while her owners are poorer. How admirably 
calculated is this " lay " to secure daring, vigilance, effi- 
ciency, on the part of every person embarked in the 
venture, I need not insist on. 

This exemplification of a law, though striking, is by 
no means solitary. A number of manufacturing estab- 
lishments have been founded on, or modified into con- 
formity with, the principle of making each worker a 
partner in the business, — a sharer in its profits and (of 
course) in its risks as well. " Union stores," and other 
combinations to procure the necessaries of life on favor- 
able terms, and preeminent among them " the Equi- 
table Pioneers " of Rochdale (England), illustrate dif- 
ferent phases of the general idea. In attempting its 
reduction to practice, there have of course been many 
errors and failures, as there doubtless will be many 
more ; and it may be fairly said, that, apart from sundry 
enterprises wherein a common and ardent religious faith 
supplied the necessary cement, no effi)rt at complete 
unification of interests and efforts, in the household as 
well as in the field or factory, has thus far achieved 
success, while hardly one has avoided absolute, unequiv- 
ocal failure. These facts are instructive ; they will by 
most be judged conclusive, — but to what extent ] 



90 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

When Franklin was asked in Europe if his countrymen 
were not short-lived, he replied that the point could not 
yet be determined, as the first generation were not all 
dead. Cooperation has achieved success in certain 
efforts, and has encountered failure in others. Arrange- 
ments are even now in progress designed to test (in 
Kansas) the practicability of complete Industrial Asso- 
ciation on a larger scale and with greater facilities than 
any former experiment has enjoyed. All such efforts 
must be regarded as tentative, experimental, likely to 
fail, yet not impossibly destined to succeed ; and in 
either case calculated to shed light on one of the most 
interesting and important problems that ever yet chal- 
lenged the attention of mankind. A hundred such may 
fail to achieve success, without exhausting the infinitely 
varied conditions under which success may be sought, — 
whereby it may yet be attained. And, if it shall finally 
be proved that a complete Association in industrial and 
social effort by several hundreds of persons or families is 
impossible, it by no means follows that a more limited, 
qualified combination of energies and efforts is imprac- 
ticable. Indeed, every Bank, Railroad, District School, 
Church, Township, exemplifies, more or less perfectly, 
the feasibility of such combination. Capital, we know, 
can combine to achieve results otherwise unattainable, 
— witness the Panama and Pacific Railroads, the Suez 
Canal, — and it remains to be proved that Labor is too 
stolid or too shallow to grasp some measure of the ad- 
vantages to be achieved only through Cooperation. 
Thus far, the demonstrations conclusively attest a suc- 
cess which, if humble, is yet indicative of further tri- 
umphs. Labor has evidently passed its Cape of Good 
Hope, and sees boundless oceans of beneficent possibility 
stretching away into immensity before it. 

Nor should we be discouraged by the consideration 



COOPERATION. 91 

that further achievement in this direction requires a 
measure of capacity, foresight, endurance, faith, self- 
denial, whereof the masses have not yet been proved 
possessors. Progress receives its impulse rarely from the 
multitude, but from the enlightened, generous, unselfish 
few, whom the masses follow only as the mob of adven- 
turei's followed in the track of Columbus after he had 
discovered the New World. The radical defect of the 
Wages system is its unfitness to develop and nourish 
the very qualities which are needed to insure the suc- 
cess of Cooperation. That success may be achieved by 
thousands, while the millions remain incredulous or in- 
different ; these will be ready enough to accept and profit 
by it when it is proved that they may thus secure their 
independence or increase their comforts. The very first 
association mainly of the Laboring Class which shall 
clearly demonstrate their ability to supply the want of a 
great capital by combining their moderate means, and 
directing their own labor to profit through the agency 
of freely chosen foremen, officers, or chiefs, will have 
done more for the Emancipation and Elevation of Labor 
than all the speculators and system-builders from Plato's 
day to our own. 

But all rational hopes of continuous improvement in 
the condition of the Laboring Class rest upon and as- 
sume the essential stability of their employment, and 
are frequently blown to the winds by the disastrous 
pressure of reckless competition. Establish the rule 
that cheapness in money price is to be sought and se- 
cured at all hazards, hence that no National ban'ier 
shall be interposed to check tlie reckless sweep of uu; 
equal competition, and, so far at least as regards aU 
products which embody large values in small mass, — 
that is, Textile Fabrics and most other Manufactures 
save the rudest and most bulky, — the countries which 



92 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

eminently combine Capital, Intelligence, Skill, Experi- 
ence, the command of Steam and Machinery, with cheap 
Labor, will inevitably underwork and undersell the 
younger, less advanced, less artificial communities, 
wherein Capital is relatively scarce, the Industrial Arts 
more primitive, and Labor commands a largei' average 
reward. It is of such competition that Louis Blanc has 
forcibly said -.^ — 

" The principle on which modern society rests is tliat of 
isolation and antagonism ; it is that of Competition. Let us 
consider a little what such a principle can carry in its 
train. 

" Competition is the perpetual and progressive increase of 
poverty. Instead of associating forces, that they may pro- 
duce the most useful results, Competition perpetually places 
them in a state of warfare, and reciprocally annihilates tliem, 

— destroying one by the other What fortunes are 

formed solely of ruins ! And of how many tears is often 
composed the good fortune of those we call happy ! Is it, 
then, a good state of society which is so constituted that the 
prosperity of one fatally corresponds with the sufferings of 
others ? Is that a principle of order, of conservation of 
wealth, which makes of Society a disorderly confusion of 
forces, triumphing only by the incessant destruction of oppos- 
ing forces ? 

" Competition is a source of general impoverishment, be- 
cause it induces an immense and continual loss of human 
labor; because, every day, every hour, everywhere, it 
reveals its empire by the annihilation of vanquished In- 
dustry, — that is to say, by the annihilation of capital, of 
raw material, of time, of labor employed. I do not hesitate 
to assert that the mass of wealth thus devoured is so great 
that any one who could at a glance measure it would recoil 
with horror. 

" Competition is a source of general impoverishment, be- 
cause it delivers up Society to the gross government of 

1 Address to Delegates of Workmen on the Organization of Labor : 
Paris, April 3, 1848. 



COOPERATION. 93 

chance. Is there under this system a single producer, a 
single laborer, who does not depend on the closing of some 
distant factory, on a failure which takes place, on a machine 
suddenly discovered and placed at the exclusive disposition 
of a rival ? Is there a single producer, a single laborer, whose 
good conduct, foresight, or wisdom, can guarantee him 
against the efl'ects of an industrial crisis ? " 

The justice of these strictures I have at least twice 
seen realized on a gigantic scale, in the general prostra- 
tion of the Manufacturing Industry of my countrymen 
under the pressure of European, mainly of British, com- 
petition. That Industry was thus crushed out after 
the peace of 1815, when the eminent Henry Brougham 
(afterward Lord Brougham) remarked (when Great 
Britain was pouring out the goods that cnished our then 
infant manufactures) that " England can afford to incur 
some loss, for the purpose of destroying foreign manu- 
factures in their cradle " ; and the noted economist and 
Free-Trader, Joseph Hume, made a similar remark iu 
1828. Our tariff enacted in that year rendered all ef- 
forts to cripple and prostrate our manufacturing industry 
temporarily fruitless ; but it Avas otherwise after the 
Compromise Tariff of 1833 began to take full effect, in 
that reduction of duties to a (presumptively) Revenue 
standard which culminated in the collapse alike of In- 
dustry and Revenue in 1840 - 42. 

A report on Strikes, made to the British Parliament 
iu 1854, significantly said : — 

" Authentic instances are well known of [British] employ- 
ers having in such times [of depressed prices] carried on their 
works at a loss amounting to three or four hundred thousand 
pounds in the course of three or four years. If the efforts 
of those who encourage the combination to restrict the 
amount of labor, and to produce strikes, were to be success- 
ful for any length of time, the great accumulations of capital 



94 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

could no longer be made, which enable a few of the most 
wealthy capitalists to overwhelm all foreign competition in 
times of great depression, and thus to clear the way for the 
whole trade to step in when prices revive, and to carry on a 
great business before foreign capital can again accumulate to 
such an extent as to be able to establish a competition in 
prices with any chance of success." 

Those, whether capitalists or laborers, on whom the 
heavy blows thus dealt took immediate effect were as 
impotent to resist or evade them as a feather in the vor- 
tex of a tornado. Of these great commercial cyclones 
which from time to time sweep over the civilized world, 
annihilating Property and paralyzing Industry, the area 
and the fury are enormously increased by that excessive 
interweaving and commingling of National interests 
and industries which is the necessary consequence — 
and, indeed, the avowed object — of Free Trade. 



MONOPOLY. 95 



VII. 



MONOPOLY — THE LAW OF PRICES — EFFECT 
OF DUTIES ON COST. 

Monopoly is perhaps the most perverted and misap- 
plied word in our much-abused mother tongue. The 
term is properly applicable solely to an exclusive privi- 
lege, conferred by law or patent, to make, veud, or sup- 
ply, a certain article or articles ; though Noah Webster 
justifies also the use of the word in that qualified or 
accommodated sense in which it is applied to a tempo- 
rary control of the market, obtained by buying up the 
entire stock on hand or accessible, and holding it for 
exorbitant prices. Formerly, the British monarchs 
claimed and exercised the right of granting monopolies 
by patent ; and Anderson says : ^ — 

" Such grants were common previously to the accession of 
the House of Stuart, and were carried to a very oppressive 
and injurious extent during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
Commercial monopolies reached to such a height in England 
that Parliament petitioned against them, and they were in 
consequence mostly abolished, about the close of Elizabeth's 
reign, 1602. They were further suppressed, as being con- 
trary to law, under James I., in 1622, and were totally abol- 
ished under Charles I., in 1640, and it was decreed that none 
should be in future created, as was previously the custom." 

Of course, it is possible to regard every exclusive pos- 
session, — the power of Pope or Czar, President or Gov- 
ernor, — as, in some vague, secondary sense, a monopoly, 
since it is peculiar and exclusive ; and so a man may be 

1 History of Commerce. 



96 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

said to have a monopoly of his wife and children, — of 
the farm he has bought and paid for or hewed out of the 
primitive wilderness; and so on, until everything but 
air and sunshine may be spoken of as monopolized. 
This, however, is hyperbole, bearing but a faint resem- 
blance to fact. If the law here conferred on one person 
the exclusive right to make Blankets or Brandy, Ships 
or Sheetings, we might accurately pronounce that man 
a monopolist, and deprecate his privilege as stifling en- 
terprise and stimulating extortion. 

But with what reason, with what justice, does one 
say that an impost or tax on imported Iron or Nails, 
Cloth or Cutlery, creates a monopoly ] A great many 
of our countrymen were previously employed in making 
these articles : which of them has been granted a mo- 
nopoly ? In what sense is a monopoly accorded to any or 
the whole of them together 1 Do we not know that, not 
only will each of them sell as his own interest prompts, 
and increase his product so fast and so far as he can do 
so with profit, but that any one else who wiU may embark 
in the business whenever he shall see fit 1 — nay, do we 
not know that this impost or tax wiU, to a moral cer- 
tainty, impel hundreds to do so 1 How can A. have had 
conferred on him by law a monopoly of that which B., 
C, D., and all the rest of the alphabet, are not only at 
perfect liberty to embark in whenever they will, but 
which this very act strongly tends to invite them to 
engage in, having been passed for that express purpose 1 

In 1822, a very earnest effort was made to increase 
the then existing Tariff (of 1816) with a view to more 
efficient Protection ; and the bill prevailed in the House, 
but was beaten in the Senate. Massachusetts was then 
eminently commercial, and conspicuously hostile to Pro- 
tection. The Hon. James Lloyd, one of her Senators, 
used with effect this argument against the passage of 
the bill : — 



MONOPOLY. 97 

" I am (said, he in substance) interested in manufac- 
turing. I own stock in one of the ver}^ few cotton-mills 
now ruiuiing in my State. That mill regularly pays 
good dividends, and is likely to do so indefinitely, if the 
Tariff be let alone. But, should you pass this bill, hun- 
dreds of such factories will be erected, till the market is 
glutted with their fabrics, when prices must fall, and 
our concern, very possibly, may be broken down. I 
choose to let well alone, and entreat you not to pass this 
bill." (I state the above from recollection ; but I think 
not inaccurately.) 

Nearly a qiiarter of a century had intervened before 
the defeat, in 1844, of Mr. Clay as a candidate for Presi- 
dent incited and justified apprehension that the Protec- 
tive Tariff of 1842 would be overthrown under the in- 
coming Administration of Colonel Polk. Pennsylvania 
was strongly interested in the continuance of Protection, 
yet had given a small popular majority for Polk, some 
of whose zealous partisans had gravely assured their 
neighbors that he was a better Protectionist than Clay. 
A meeting was called at Pittsburg to rejoice over Polk's 
triumph; and to this meeting the Hon. James Buchanan 
(who had voted in Congress for the Tariffs of 1824, 
1828, and 1842) transmitted this sentiment :■ — 

" Domestic Manufactures. — They have been saved, by the 
election of James K. Polk, from being overwhetmed by the im- 
mense capital luhich ivould have rushed into them for invest- 
ment, and from an expansion of the currency which would 
have nullified any Protection short of prohibition." 

When a general revision of the Tariff was last before 
the House of Representatives (February, 1867), I was 
on the floor, and, meeting a leading member from Mis- 
souri, I said to him : " It does not disappoint me to see 
Massachusetts lukewarm and half-hearted in support of 
Protection, — hei' factories are built and running ; she has 

5 G 



98 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

machinery, skill, experience, markets ; I expect her soon 
to desert us, under the impression that she has more to 
dread henceforth from American than from Foreign compe- 
tition;^ — but what you Missourians, with your vast wealth 
of unopened mines, your unused water-power, your un- 
built factories, can mean by voting against Protection, I 
cannot imagine." My Missouri friend winced a little, 
but replied : " I think we might harmonize on this sub- 
ject, were it not for the Pennsylvanians • — ■ the Iron men ; 
they are too greedy." — " Stop ! " I rejoined, " and answer 
me one plain question right here : Suppose the duty on 
imported Iron were $ 1,000 per ton, and could never be 
less ; what would then govern the price of Iron in this 
country?" — " I suppose," he rephed, "that the price 
of Iron would he governed hy the cost of producing it." 
" Quite right," I responded ; " and it seems to me that 
you, who comprehend so well the law governing prices, 
must know better than to vote here with the enemies of 
Protection." 

Not many months ago, the price of fair, merchantable 
Brick in this city ranged from $ 15 to $ 16 per thousand. 
Extensive building had run it up to that figure, — the 
demand for Brick pressing hard on the heels of supply. 
The brick -makers along the Hudson were coining money ; 
and of com-se more yards were opened, more and more 
brick made, until the price was pressed down to $ 9 and 
•$10 per thousand, from which it has since slightly ad- 
vanced. In neither case, was the price at all affected by 
importation, or duties on imports, — Brick being too 
bulky to bear, in ordinary times, the cost of an ocean 
voyage. The price rose because the demand for Brick 
rapidly and steadily increased till the supply became in- 
adequate : then the enhanced price incited a largely in- 
creased production ; and this in turn bore down the 
price : then the production slackened, and the price be- 



MONOPOLY. 99 

gan to rise again. No scales or steel-yards ever respond- 
ed more surely to the law of gravitation than did the 
Brick manufacture and market to the kindred law of 
supply and demand. 

I ask, then, why this law may not, in the absence of 
foreign competition, be trusted to regulate the price of 
Iron (for instance) precisely as it does that of Brick 1 
Ore, Coal, and Limestone — the raw materials required 
for the production of Iron — are found on almost every 
hundred miles square of our country ; our rivers, lakes, 
sounds, canals, and railroads, aflFord extensive, though as 
yet imperfect, facilities for their cheap concentration ; 
they can be bought, as they lie where Nature placed 
them, as cheaply here as elsewhere, — the Government 
having still millions of acres filled with them for sale at 
ten York shillings per acre, — while the high wages of 
the last seven years have drawn hither some of the most 
skilful and experienced iron-makers of Europe, to say 
nothing of those trained and schooled on our own soil. 
Suppose, now, that our present Iron-masters, being very 
human, want to make money too fast, and are thus 
moved to ask too much for their metal, what under 
Heaven prevents others from going into the business, 
and so increasing the product till the price of Iron comes 
down as that of Brick so lately did '? Has the Prophet 
Elisha been working another and more gigantic miracle, 
whereby Iron is made to defy the law of gravitation 1 
Say that all Protectionists are so greedy that they exact 
fifty per cent, more for their Iron than it is worth, what 
hinders Free-Traders from stepping in and enriching 
themselves, while blessing their fellow-citizens, by making 
a plenty of Iron at fair prices ] There is no mystery, 
there is no magic, in Iron-making ; it requires no elaborate 
preparation or enormous aggi-egation of capital ; there 
are thousands all around us who could run up a furnace 



100 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and smelt therein Ore into Pig as promptly and cheaply 
as it is now done ; and they are ready for the work, — 
not to speak of furnaces out of blast and now for sale at 
less than cost. Why is it that Free-Traders don't and 
won't make Pig Ii'on, when the business is so simple and 
they say it is so enormously profitable 1 Some of them 
own long lines of railroads which require thousands of 
tons of new rails, chairs, spikes, &c., annuaUy, and could 
easily make them if they would ; why don't they 1 They 
understand business ; they own, or at least wield, ample 
capital ; they are not averse to making profits. Why 
can't they be persuaded, coaxed, jeered, shamed, driven, ^ 
into making American Iron, instead of standing aside to 
make faces at those who do ] What answer 1 

In all the dissertations of Free-Traders, I meet an 
unfailing, quiet assumption that a Tariff must enhance 
the PRICE of a given article, or it can do our producers 
of that article no good. The truth, as I apprehend it, is 
otherwise. 

I am a manufacturer of newspapers, — bred to that 
trade, which I have assiduously followed through life. 
I have made a fair living by that, and nothing to speak 
of by anything else. Having given forty-odd years to 
its acquirement and prosecution, I ought to have a tol- 
erable comprehension of its wants and its laws. It hap- 
pens not to be one that needs direct legal Protection, 
because an imported newspaper cannot supplant or re- 
place an American one, as a piece of foreign calico or 
shirting can take the place and subserve the end of one 
made in this country. I make no pretensions to unself- 
ishness, and would gladly make more money by my 
business than I now do. Yet I do not want a higher 
price for my product, would not raise that price if I could. 
I tvould like to double the demand for that product, — 



THE LAW OF PRICES. 101 

to sell a thousand copies where I now sell five hundred, — 
to have a sale that would keep my steam presses and 
other costly machinery running up to the limit of their 
capacity. Secure me such a market, and I will agree 
never to ask an enhanced price while I live. Nay, I 
would covenant to make a better and more costly paper 
than I can now afford, if I could thereby secure a quick 
demand for all the copies I could print. I now give a 
better paper than I could jjossibly afford for the price, if 
the edition I print during the night could be rivalled and 
superseded by British journals arriving by steamer in the 
gi-ay of the morning. And this is true of newspapers 
generally ; and true, I presume, of Prints or De Lames, 
as well as of newspapers. 

Years ago, under a low duty, w^e imported most of 
the Starch used in this country, making a little capri- 
ciously when the market, from whatever cause, was bare ; 
but soon a fresh importation would flood our ports, 
shutting up our starch-factories and driving out their 
workmen to find employment at something else. Of 
com'se, they acquired no decided proficiency in the art, 
and our Starch was undoubtedly inferior in quality to its 
imported rival. But the Tariff of 1842 imposed a duty 
of two cents per pound on imported Starch ; and, at 
once, a leading house in this city resumed its long sus- 
pended manufacture of Starch, called in its scattered 
workmen, made a good article, and put it on the market 
half a cent per pound helo^v the price previously ruling. 
This was done pui'cly on business principles, — because 
Starch could be afforded for less in a large and steady 
market than in one contracted and capricious. 

Mr. Clay, in his Raleigh speech,^ pleasantly exposed 
the fallacy of the Free-Trade assumption that the price of 
an article is enhanced by the amount of the duty there- 

1 June ir, 1844. 



102 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

on, by citing the discomfiture of a Democratic canvasser 
who, seeing a shabbily dressed hearer just in front of 
him, arrested the regular flow of his eloquence long 
enough to ask, "My friend, do you know that these 
Tariff" monopolists make you pay six cents per yard more . 
than you should for that shirt you have on T' — "I sup- 
pose it must be so, since you say it," responded the sur- 
prised and scared auditor; "but I have no learning, and 
don't quite understand it, since I only gave five and a 
half." 

The Tariff" of 1842 found the duties on Cotton fabrics 
very low, and raised them to a minimum of six cents 
per square yard on plain and nine cents per square yard 
on printed or colored, — which was in fact higher than 
though it had been one hundred per cent, on the import- 
ers' valuation of their goods. No doubt, this enhance- 
ment shut out foreign and enlarged the market for our 
American fabrics, as it was intended to do. " Of course, 
the manufacturers raised their prices," you say. No, 
they did not ; though they probably would have done so 
if they could. They did not, because, 1. They could 
make cheaper, running their machinery full time in 
presence of an ample and eager market, than running 
capriciously and while obliged to keep their goods on 
hand for months, awaiting purchasers ; 2. Because com- 
petition was keen among them, and kept down prices to 
the point at which a fair, living profit could be made, — 
he who refused to sell at such rates losing his customers 
to rivals who believed in the nimble sixpence. So Mr. 
Samuel Lawrence, writing from Lowell (December 14, 
1842) in reply to my inq\iiry for specific information as 
to the effect of the new Protective Tariff" on the prices 
of cotton fabrics, gave the following exhibit of the prices 
at which Lowell fabrics sold for the three months before 
and the three months after the passage of that act : ^ — 
1 Approved August 20, 1842. 



EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST. 103 

AVERAGE PRICES OF LOWELL COTTON FABRICS. 
In May, June, and July, 1842. In Sept., Oct., and Nov., da 

Drillings, 7f cts. per yard. 7 cts. per yard. 

Shirtings, common, 5^ " " 5 " " 

Shirtings, heavy, 6\ " " 5f " " 

Sheetings, common, G^ " " 6 " 

Sheetings, wide, 8| " " 7f " " 

Flannels, (cotton,) 10 " " 8^ " " 

Here (as in the case of Starch, before cited) the 
American producers of Cotton fabrics were not only 
efiabled to sell their products cheaper in the larger and 
surer market secured to them by Protection ; they 
actually did it, — doubtless to their own profit. 

Now look at the same truth from the other side : — 
Mr. Edward C. Delavan, in a letter to The Northern 
Light of December, 1842, quoted the circular and price- 
list of a British hardware house in this city, intent on 
retaining its customers in this country in spite of the 
enhanced duties on their goods levied by the Tariff of 
that year. This circular and price-list were addi'essed 
(October 26) to Messrs. Erastus Coming & Co., Albany 
(among others), and gave in parallel columns the prices 
they charged respectively before and after oar Protective 
Tariff was passed : the reductions being nicely grad- 
uated to meet the increased duties, — an invoice of 
twenty articles, which cost £143 16 s. under our old 
Revenue Tariff, being put at £131 10 s. under our new 
Protective Tariff; making the cost here, after paying the 
enhanced duty, a little less than it was under the old 
tariff. Here there was no more pretence of philan- 
thropy than in the case of the Lowell men just cited. 
The Lowell manufacturers sold their goods lower under 
the Protective Tariff because they cost them less than 
when their market was restricted, languid, doubtful, 
capricious ; the British hardware men sold their goods 



104 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

cheaper, because they must otherwise lose their Ameri- 
can customers, and they preferred a market with small 
profits to no market and no profit at all. Each, I pre- 
sume, sold for the most they coiold get; but our con- 
sumers were supplied with both Hardware and Cotton 
Fabrics at lower prices because of Protection. 

Let me not even seem to maintain that Protection 
always and everywhere produces an immediate reduction 
of prices.^ Doubtless, we are now paying more for some 
articles — such as Iron and Steel — than we should pay 
if they were imported free of duty. But abundant facts 
sustain and justify these general propositions : — 

I. The circumstance that an article is largely import- 
ed under a duty of thirty per cent, by no means proves 
that it woxild be sold here thirty per cent, cheaper ^ if 
the duty were abolished. 

1 " The League " (the Free-Trade organ in this country) for May, 
1868, under the head of " Protection Unattainable by Tariff," says: — 

" Factories were not extensively established until the war of 1812, 
and were specially protected by the Tariff of 1816. This raised the 
price at first, and was all the encouragement that was desired. But, 
in a little while, another effect followed: The foreign manufachirers 
contrived to reduce the cost of producing their goods, by improved ma- 
chinery and other means, and stibmitted to a reduction of their profits in 
order to keep as much as they could of American trade by counteracting 
the Tariff^ while the American manufacturers, who could only supply 
a part of the demand for broadcloths, found their profits diminished by 
the rise in the cost of labor and subsistence, which was caused by the 
. diversion of labor from its natural channels. To this was added the 
more abundant capital of the foreign manufacturers, enabling them to 
give longer credits; their wider access to established markets enabling 
them to accept a lower rate of profits, and the great advantage of being 
already established, with machinery all built, trade all regulated, and in 
the midst of a superabundant supply of labor, which had no competing 
opening, and which could therefore be had for the asking, at the lowest 
wages on which people could live.'''' 

2 Mr. Commissioner Wells, in a note to his last Annual Eeport, 
says : — 

" The experience of Great Britain for the last twenty years in re- 
spect to Tea, as a source of revenue under the customs, has established 
this curious fact, that a decrease of the tariff on -this article brings no 



EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST. 105 

II. The cheapest articles in this as in any other coun- 
try are those which are wholly or mainly home-made. 
Thus, we make nearly all our Axes, Plouohs, Han'ows, 
Scythes, Hoes, Spades, Shovels, «kc. ; and the wide 
world can show none better nor (of like quality) cheaper 
than ours. On the other hand, we have hitherto im- 
ported most of our Log-Chains, Trace-Chains, Saws, &c.; 
and these are not relatively so cheap, and have not im- 
proved in efficiency so decidedly, as the farming imple- 
ments that we mainly make at home. 

III. Whenever a department of manufacturing or 
other industry has become fiinnly established in our 
country, — whether by the aid of Protection or other- 
wise, — so that its endurance and expansion are virtually 
assured, we may safely rely on domestic competition to 
graduate the price of its product, the profit of the pro- 
ducers, to the average standards afforded by other and 
kindred pursuits. Unless self-interest has ceased to in- 
fluence human conduct, we may be sure that, if Corn or 
Cotton should this year be produced to great profit, 
more people would engage in its production next year, 
and so reduce prices and profits ; and the rule holds 

corresponding benefit in the way of reduction of price to the con- 
sumer. Thus, for example, while the duty on Tea, under the British 
tariff, was reduced to the extent of 77 per cent, between the years 
1849 and 1866 (from 2 s. 2^ d. in 1849 to 6 d. in 1866), the avera.ee "price 
of Tea ' in bond,' or duty-free, during- the same period, exhibited a 
corresponding 8nc?-eose of about fiftj' per cent. (i. e. from 1 s. 1 d. to 1 s. 
7| d.); and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that the supply through 
importation had nowise abated, but, on the contrary, increased during 
the 3'ears 1862-63 to an extent sufficient to overstock the market. 
The explanation of this commercial phenomenon is, that there being 
practically but one Tea-producing country, the trade partakes of the 
character of monopoly to such a degree that a decrease of the duty 
enures mainbj to the advantage of the producer, and an increase, con- 
versely, to his disadvantage. The opinion, therefore, so often expressed 
of late, that a reduction of the present duty on Tea would result to the 
advantage of the American consumer, is not likely to be practically 
realized." 

5* 



106 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

good with regard to Pig and Bar Iron, Wool and Wool- 
lens, Prints and Sheetings. Protection determines only 
that certain articles shall be mainly produced in the con- 
suming country ; it does not decide that A. or B. shall 
have a monopoly of their manufacture. And when Mr. 
Commissioner Wells asserts, evidently alleging a per- 
manent, and not merely a transient result, that — 

" It not unfrequently happens that the imposition of a tax 
in the form of a tariff on an imported article is made the oc- 
casion for very greatly and unnecessarily advancing the price 
of a- corresponding domestic product "— r .. 

he ignores and defies a law as inexorable as gravitation, 
— that which impels men to rush into a pursuit which 
is supposed to yield extraordinary profits. ■ Let one 
farmer make money by growing Hops (for instance), and 
twenty others will forthwith plant hop-yards, — very 
possibly to their own damage and loss, but very cer- 
tainly to the reduction of the average profit of Hop- 
growing. If Wool sells exceptionally high, Sheep will 
increase and multiply ; if Lumber brings a high price 
this Summer, the pine-trees are bound to suff'er for it 
next Winter. He who imagines that the law here indi- 
cated stops short at the doors of a furnace or factory, 
fearing to venture in, evinces deplorable ignorance or 
blinding prejudice. Cost is the general measure of 
Price, alike in the presence and in the absence of Pro- 
tection, True, if there were but one mine of Zinc or 
Copper in our country, a high duty on that mineral 
might enrich the owner or owners of that mine ; and 
thus it may be that the owners of certaiu ingenious in- 
ventions subservient to the production of Screws have 
realized large profits on their patents, — larger, it may 
be, than they would have done in the absence of any 
duty on imported Screws ; but they owe their good for- 
tune primarily to their inventions or patents, and but 



EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST. 107 

subordinately to the Tariff. Had there been no duty 
on Screws, they would still have held substantial posses- 
sion of our market, and realized large profits thei'efrom, 
though they might have been consti'aiued to make their 
Screws in Europe, because of the relative cheapness of 
foreign labor. Their patents would have held good here 
in any case ; the Tariff only makes it their interest to 
manufacture in this country rather than abroad. And 
I hold mankind benefited and the world enriched by 
the development and perfection of the Sci'ew manufac- 
ture in this country which the last few years have wit- 
nessed, — a development to which Protection gave an 
impulse, by naturalizing this industry among us, and 
thus calling into activity the genius for invention which 
might else have passed away undemonstrated and un- 
known. In a few years the patents will all have ex- 
pired, as I am assi;red most of them have already done ; 
while the inventions they cover, the new industry they 
have built up, will remain an embodiment of Man's 
power over material Nature and a blessing to all genera- 
tions. 



108 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



VIIT. 



AGKICULTURE AS AFFECTED BY PROTECTION 
— VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 

Whoever is familiar with our country's Economic and 
Fiscal legislation must concede the following positions : — 

I. That the great men who framed, advocated, and 
secured, the adoption of the Federal Constitution, who 
ruled the country throughout the next generation, and 
thus laid the foundations of our National policy, were 
not manufacturers nor interested in any form of handi- 
craft, but were for the most part connected, directly or 
indirectly, with the Farming or Planting interest, which 
was then not merely the dominant but the sole reliance 
of nine-tenths of our People, 

II. That these great men all but unanimously sug- 
gested and commended the fostering of Home Manufac- 
tures by discriminating Protective Duties on their 
Foreign rivals. 

III. That they undoubtingly believed that, in so doing, 
they were subserving the interest of American Agricul- 
ture and laboring to secure to themselves and their fel- 
low farmers or planters, not merely a more assured and 
constant, but a more ample, recompense for their labor, 
by creating larger, nearer, steadier, and better, markets 
for their products. 

Generations swiftly succeed each other, and truths 
which were familiar forty years ago, having been over- 
laid by the exciting topics and events of the last decade, 
may be unknown to many now on the stage of action. 
For the benefit of these, I proceed to prove what is al- 
ready well known to older readers. 



AGRICULTURE AS AFFECTED BY PROTECTION. 109 

General Washington, — an extensive and practical far- 
mer through life, never interested, so far as I can learn, 
in the manufacture even of a Jew's-harp, — in his first 
Annual Message ^ (which he read in pei-son to Con- 
gi'ess), says : — 

" The safety and interest of the People require that they 
should promote such Manufactures as tend to render them 
independent of others for essential, particularly for Alilitary, 
supplies." 

Congress responded to this suggestion by ordering ^ — 

" That it be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, to 
propose and report to this House a proper plan or plans, con- 
formably to the recommendation of the President in his 
speech to both Houses of Congress, for the encouragement 
and promotion of such manufactories as will tend to render 
the United States independent of other nations for essential, 
particularly for Military, supplies." 

The Secretary thus appealed to was Alexander Ham- 
ilton, — not a small man for those da3's, and never, 
so far as I have heard, engaged in the manufacture of 
either horn gunflints or basswood pumpkin-seeds. He 
took time to consider the matter, and at length respond- 
ed^ in a Report which remains a landmark in our his- 
tory. I will here quote from it just enough to show the 
grotmds on which Colonel Hamilton based his advocacy 
of a Protective policy, with his conception of its bearings 
on Agriculture and of its National importance. If any 
reader shall deem his view narrow or partial, mole-eyed 
or sordid, I shall be sorry for that reader, not for Alex- 
ander Hamilton, who, in his introductory paragi-aph, 
says : — 

" The embarrassments which have obstructed the progress 
of our external trade have led to serious reflections on the 

1 .January 8, 1790. ^ December 5, 179L 

2 .January 15, 1790. 



110 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce. 
The restrictive regulations which, in foreign markets, abridge 
the vent for the increasing surplus of our agricultui^al pro- 
duce, serve to beget an earnest desire that a more extensive 
demand for that surplus may be created at home ; and the 
complete success which has rewarded manufacturing enter- 
prise in some valuable branches, conspiring with the promis- 
ing symptoms which attend some less mature essays in 
others, justify a hope that the obstacles to the growth of this 
species of industry are less formidable than they were appre- 
hended to be, and that it is not difficult to find in its further 
extension a full indemnification for any external disadvan- 
tages which are or may be experienced, as well as an acces- 
sion of resources favorable to national independence and 
safety." 

The House of Representatives, impelled by this Re- 
port, proceeded to create a Standing Committee of Com- 
merce and Manufactures, which it continued for twenty 
years thereafter, and then divided, because of the great 
variety and importance of the subjects claiming its at 
tention. The fact that Manufactures were deemed, 
under the sway of Washington and Hamilton, deserving, 
in connection with Commerce, the regard of a Standing 
Committee of Congress, remains. 

President Washing-ton, in his second Annual Address -^ 
to Congress, thus tersely and forcibly affirms his un- 
changing convictions : — 

" Congress have repeatedly, and not without success, di- 
rected their attention to the encouragement of manufactwes. 
The object is of too much consequence not to insure a con- 
tinuance of their efforts in every way which shall appear 
eligible." 

Thomas Jefferson was, like Washington, a farmer or 
planter, and never personally connected with Manufac- 
tures or interested therein. Yet, in his second Annual 

1 December 7, 1796. 



VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. Ill 

Message,^ he deliberately sums up the legitimate objects 
or purposes of the Federal Government, in these words : — 

" To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and naviga- 
tion in all their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries as 
nurseries of navigation, and for the nurture of man, andp?-o- 
tect the manvfactures adapted to our circumstances ; to pre- 
serve the faitli of the nation by an exact discliarge of its 
debts and contracts, expend tlie pubhc money with tlie same 
care and economy Ave would practise with our own, and im- 
pose on our citizens no unnecessary burden ; to keep in all 
things within tlie pale of our constitutional powers, and cher- 
ish the Federal Union as the only rock of safety, — these, 
fellow-citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to guide 
ourselves in all our proceedings. By continuing to make 
these the rule of our action, we shall endear to our countiy- 
men the true j^rincijjles of their Constitution, and promote a 
union of sentiment and of action equally auspicious to their 
happiness and safety." 

In a subsequent Message,^ in view of the rapid reduc- 
tion and in anticipation of the early extinguishment of 
the National Debt, he inquires, with regard to the ex- 
pected surplus of revenue : — 

" To what other objects shall these surpluses be appropri- 
ated, and the whole surplus of impost after the entire dis- 
charge of the public debt, and during those intervals when 
the purposes of Avar shall not call for them ? Shall Ave sup- 
press the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over 
domestic manufactures ? " 

These fond anticipations were suddenly blasted by the 
wrongs to which our commerce was exposed by the ar- 
bitrary British "Orders in Council," declaring the entire 
coast of France under blockade and eveiy vessel trading 
thei-eto laAvful pi'ize of war, with the equally unjustifi- 
able and even less plausible " Decrees," dated at Berlin 

1 December 15, 1802. 2 December 2, 1806. 



112 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and Milan respectively, with which Napoleon retaliated. 
Mr. Jefferson felt constrained thereby to embargo our 
own merchant vessels, forbidding them to trade with 
either of the belligerents until those atrocious " Orders " 
and " Decrees " should be rescinded. Our Revenue there- 
upon shrank from a river to a rivulet, and the payment 
of our Debt was arrested, but our still infant Manufac- 
tures received a powerful impetus. Mr. Jefferson, in his 
last Annual Message,^ refers to the changed condition as 
follows : — 

" The suspension of foreign commerce produced by the in- 
justice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses 
and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern. 
The situation into which we have tlius been forced has im- 
pelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to 
internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this 
conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that 
the establishments, formed and forming, will — under the 
auspices of clieaper materials and subsistence, the freedom 
of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and 
prohibitions — become permanent." 

President Madison has been styled the Father of the 
Constitution. He certainly bore a leading part in its 
formation and in commending it to popular acceptance. 
His philosophic spirit, his habitual moderation and equi- 
poise, give weight to his oracles of wise and cautious 
statesmanship. In his second Annual Message ^ he 
says : — 

" I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior 
view of our country presents us with grateful proofs of its 
substantial and increasing prosperity. To a thriving agricul- 
ture, and. the improvements relating to it, is added a highly 
interesting extension of useful manufactures, the combined 
products of professional occupations and of household indus- 

1 November 8, 1808. ' 2 December 5, 1810. - 



VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 113 

try. Such, indeed, is the experience of economy, as well as 
of policy, in these substitutes for suppHes heretofore obtained 
by foreign commerce, that, in a national view, the change is 
justly regarded as, of itself, more than a recompense for those 
privations and losses, resulting from foreign injustice, which 
furnished the general impulse required for its accomplishment. 
How far it may be expedient to guard the infancy of this 
improvement in the distribution of labor, by regulations of 
the commercial tariff, is a subject which cannot fail to suggest 
itself to your patriotic reflections." 

In his next Annual Message^ he recurs to the subject 
in these terms : — 

" Although other subjects will press more immediately on 
your deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be weU be- 
stowed on Xhejust and sound policy of securing to our manufac- 
tures the success they have attained, and are still attaining, in 
some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent, and 
to our navigation the fair extent of Avhich it is, at present, 
abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign Governments. 

" Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures 
from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring 
upon them, the National interest requires that, with respect 
to such articles at least as belong to our defence and primary 
wants, Ave should not be left in a state of unnecessary depend- 
ence on external supplies." 

War with Great Britain soon followed ; and, for more 
than two years enstiing, the land resounded to the clash 
of arms. When peace was at length restored, Mr. Madi- 
son transmitted ^ the Treaty of Ghent to Congress, ac- 
companied by an explanatory Message, in which he 
says : — 

" But there is no subject that can enter with greater force 
and merit into the deUberations of Congress than a consider- 
ation of the means to preserve and promote the mamifactures 
which have sprung into existence, and attained an unparal- 

1 November 5, 1811. a February 20, 1815. 



114 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 

leled maturity throughout the United States during the period 
of the European Wars. This source of national independence 
and wealth, I anxiously recommend, therefore, to tlie prompt 
and constant guardianship of Congress." 

Finally, in his seventh Annual Message,^ to a new 
Congress, about to enter upon the revision of the Tariff 
and its adaptation to the changed circumstances of our 
country, consequent not merely on the close of our own 
War with Great Britain, but, on the final overthrow of 
Napoleon, and the resulting restoration of peace to the 
world, the veteran statesman, about to take leave forever 
of public life, addressed words freighted with the wis- 
dom born of rare natiu-al sagacity and the observations 
of a long, eventful, thoughtful, active, honored career. 
I entreat every reader to weigh carefully every word of 
the following, in contrast with the antagonist inculca- 
tions now so persistently dinned into the pxiblic ear. 
Mr. Madison says : — 

" In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of reve- 
nue, the influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily 
present itself for consideration. However wise the theory 
may be which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individu- 
als the application of tlieir industry and resources, there are 
in this, as in all other cases, exceptions to the general rule. 
Besides the condition which the theory itself implies, of a re- 
ciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that 
so many circumstances must concur in introducing and matur- 
ing manufacturing establishments, especially of the more 
comphcated kinds, that a country may remain long with- 
out them, although sufficiently advanced, and in some respects 

even peculiarly fitted, for carrying them on with success 

In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the pub- 
lic patronage, a preference is obviously claimed by such as 
will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign 
supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for articles necessary 
for the public defence, or connected with the primary wants 

1 December 5, 1815. 



VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 115 

o» individuals. It will be an additional recommendation for 
particular manufactures when the materials for them are ex- 
tensively drawn from our agriculture, and consequently im- 
part and insure to that great fund of national prosperity and 
independence an encouragement which cannot fail to be re- 
warded." 

Mr. Alexander J. Dallas, the eminent Secretary of the 
Treasury, supplemented ^ Mr. Madison's Message, with a 
special Report (drawn up in obedience to a requirement 
of the House), embodying the draft of a Tariff contem- 
plating both Revenue and Protection, and cogently com- 
mending the policy of Protection. I ask attention to 
but a single paragraph of that Report, which bears di- 
rectly on the points under discussion. Says Mr. Dallas : — 

" Although some indulgence will always be required for 
any attempt so to realize the national independence in the 
department of manufactures, the sacrifice cannot be either 
great or lasting. The inconveniences of the day will be 
amply compensated by future advantages. The agriculturist, 
whose produce and whose flocks depend for their value upon 
the fluctuations of a foreign market, will have no occasion 
eventually to regret the opportunity of a ready sale for his 
wool or his cotton in his own neighborhood ; and it will soon 
be understood that the success of the American manufac- 
ture, which tends to diminish the profit (often the excessive 
profit) of the importer, does not necessarily add to the price 
of the article in the hands of the consumer." 

Mr. Newton of Virginia, — who lived and served till 
he was known as the father of the House, — on the same 
day made, from the Committee on Commerce and Manu- 
factures, a Report urging a largely increased duty on 
Cotton Fabrics, and of course favoring Protection in 
general. In view of the base efforts since employed to 
sow dissension not only between different classes but 
between dififerent sections of our country, on the assump- 

1 February 13, 1816. 



116 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

tion that Protection taxes one for the benefit of another, 
I soHcit attention to two paragraphs of the language of 
the Committee, through Mr. Newton, as follows : — 

" The States that are most disposed to manufactures as 
regular occupations will draw from the agricultural States all 
the raw materials which they want, and not an inconsiderable 
portion, also, of the necessaries of hfe ; while the latter will, 
in addition to the benefits which they at present enjoy, always 
command, in peace or in war, at moderate prices, every spe- 
cies of 'manufacture that their wants may require. Should 
they be inclined to manufacture for themselves, they can do 
so with success, because they have all the means in their 
power to erect and extend at pleasure manufacturing estab- 
lishments. Our wants being supplied by our own ingenuity 
and industry, exportation of specie to pay for foreign manu- 
factures will cease." 

Referring to the general advantages of the Protective 
system in developing the resources of the whole country, 
the Committee say : — 

" Every State will participate in those advantages ; the re- 
sources of each will be explored, opened, and enlarged. Dif- 
ferent sections of the Union will, according to their position, 
the climate, the population, the habits of the people, and the 
nature of the soil, strike into that line of industry which is 
best adapted to their interest and the good of the whole ; an 
active and free intercourse, promoted and facilitated by roads 
and canals, will ensue ; prejudices, which are generated by 
distance and the want of inducements to approach each other 
and reciprocate benefits, will be removed ; information will 
be extended ; the Union Avill acquire strength and solidity ; 
and the Constitution of the United States, and that of each 
State, will be regarded as fountains from which flow numer- 
ous streams of public and private prosperity." 

The Tariff thereupon framed and passed was reported 
by William Lowndes of South Carolina, one of the ablest 
and purest men whom this country ever knew. One 
of its most salient provisions was that which established 



VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 117 

a minimum of twenty -five cents per square yard for 
Cotton Fabrics, — that is to say, the duties on Cotton 
and on Woollen Fabrics being alike fixed at twenty-five 
per cent., it was provided that all Cotton Fabrics in- 
voiced as costing less than twenty-five cents per square 
yard should be deemed to have cost that sum, and sub- 
jected to duty accordingly. The effect, of course, was 
to make the amount actually assessed on cheap, coarse 
Cotton goods equal to an Ad Valorem impost of fifty to 
one hundred per cent. [Here is that atrocious imposi- 
tion of exorbitant taxes on the fabrics worn by the poor, 
while those bought by the rich pay next to nothing, 
whereupon modern demagoguism so exuberantly disports 
itself.] A desperate effort was of course made to strike 
out this provision for a minimum. This was resisted 
by John C. Calhoun, then a young member from South 
Carolina, but one of recognized eminence and power. 
Mr. Calhoun based his support of a high specific duty 
on cheap, coarse Cotton Fabrics, on these grounds : — 

"Neither agriculture, manufactures, nor commerce, taken 
separately, is the cause of wealth; it flows from them com- 
bined, and cannot exist without each. The wealth of any 
single nation, or individual, it is true, may not be immediately 
derived from the three ; but such wealth always presupposes 
the existence of the three sources, though derived imme- 
diately from one or two of them only. Taken in its most 
enlarged sense, without commerce, industry would have no 
stimulus; without manufactures, it would be without the 
means of production ; and without agriculture, neither of the 
others can exist. When separated entirely and permanently, 
they must perish. War, in this country, produces to a great 
extent that separation ; and hence the great embarrassment 
that follow\s in its train. The failure of the wealth and re- 
sources of the nation necessarily involves the ruin of its finan- 
ces and its currency. It is admitted by the most strenuous 
advocates on the other side, that no country ought to be de- 



118 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

pendent on another for its means of defence, — that at least 
our musket and bayonet, our cannon and ball, ought to be 
of domestic manufacture. But what is more necessary to 
the defence of a country, than its currency and finance ? 
Circumscribed as our country is, can these stand the shock of 
war ? Behold the effect of the late war on them ! When 
our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they 
soon will under the fostering care of the Government, we will 
no longer experience those evils. The farmer will find a 
ready market for his surplus produce, and, what is of almost 
equal consequence, a certain and cheap supply of all his 
wants." 

These and like arguments prevailed, — South Carolina 
herself giving six votes for sustaining the minimum to 
two against it, — and the high duty thus imposed on 
cheap, coarse Cotton Fabrics enabled our few cotton-mills 
to ride out the storm that quickly followed the opening 
of our ports to British Manufactures at generally low 
duties upon the proclamation of Peace. While most of 
our Manufactures were prostrated, these withstood the 
convulsion, and our production of cheap Cottons has 
ever since been more solidly, uniformly prosperous than 
any other, and the relative price of such Fabrics has 
long been lower here than elsewhere in the wide world. 

I might quote from the Messages of Governors George 
Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, De Witt Clinton, 
Simon Snyder, and many others of like eminence, ur- 
gent recommendations of Protection to Manufactures on 
grounds substantially identical with those taken above; 
but need 1 1 The fact that they commended such Protec- 
tion in the interest of American Agriculture, and as a 
means of enhancing the measure of its recompense while 
insuring a far larger and steadier demand for its products, 
is undenied and undeniable. These illustrious patriots 
had no special interest in Manufactures, save as a means 
of promoting and securing " the greatest good of the 



VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 119 

greatest number." Not for the sake of Manufactures 
primarily or mainly, but in pm-suance of what they pro- 
foundly believed the general good, did they uphold and 
commend the policy of Protection. 

Names are nothing. I would have no one accept a 
proposition merely because Washington or Jefferson, 
Madison or Dallas, did. I ask attention, not to the fact 
that these held as I do, but to their reasons for so doing, 
— their grounds for believing that the upbuilding and 
diversification of Manufactures among us were essential 
to the prosperity and growth of our Agriculture, the 
just recompense of our Labor. If their views were 
crude and narrow, selfish and perverse, let judgment be 
rendered accordingly ; but first consider their positions, 
weigh their arguments, and do not condemn them un- 
heard, merely because a different school of economists, 
with admirable self-complacency and modesty, assure 
you that then* own views are liberal, enlightened, philo- 
sophic, statesmanlike, and that all who dissent there- 
fi-om are inevitably selfish, shallow, short-sighted, and 
absurd- 



120 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



IX. 

THE STATE — ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE — 
POWERS AND DUTIES — FREE TRADE AX- 
IOMS CONSIDERED. 

As I write, the proceedings of a Free Trade meeting^ 
in Chicago are laid before me. They open with a pre- 
amble and resolves, moved by Dr. Ray, whereof the 
base or groundwork is the following proposition : — 

" Whereas, The right of each citizen of a free country to 
have and to hold the fruit of his own labor at the control of 
his own will ; to sell the same where he chooses ; to take 
what he pleases to pay therefor, without let or hindrance, 
save in the way of just taxes to maintain law and order in the 
state, is as clear as his right to his own life, and may not be 
overridden without danger to all his other rights." 

Here it is clearly affirmed that taxation is legitimate 
and rightftd only when its proceeds are devoted to a 
single purpose, — " to maintain law and order in the 
state." Of course, taxation to pay the purchase-money 
for Louisiana was usurping and fraudulent, not merely 
on the ground affirmed by Mr. Jefferson, that the Fed- 
eral Constitution did not warrant any such expenditure, 
but on the broader, more sweeping assumption that no 
Constitution could warrant it, — that it was made for a 
purpose wholly foreign to the legitimate ends of govern- 
ment. 

Yet Dr. Ray, I cannot doubt, has favored the ex- 
penditure of large sums and the contracting of a con- 

1 July 13, 1869. 



THE STATE — ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE. 121 

siderable debt, by Chicago expressly to provide her peo- 
ple with pure, sweet water, — a purpose which he de- 
clares wholly without the legitimate sphere of govern- 
ment. At all events, / very heartily voted, thirty-six 
years ago, to bring the Croton water into our city at a 
very heavy cost to her tax-payers, of whom I was not 
yet one. There was a spirited opposition, especially in 
the poorest quarters of the city, — two of the Wards 
mainly inhabited by non-tax-payers giving majorities in 
the negative. Yet, at least two-thirds of all who voted 
at all voted for Water ; and our city has been more 
attractive, more healthful, less liable to pestilence, less 
filthy, less noisome, and every way more fit for human 
habitation, since that water came pouring through our 
streets and streaming into our houses. We obtained it 
by voting to mortgage and tax the property alike of 
those who assented and those who protested, — by de- 
cisively denying and overruling the alleged "right of a 
free citizen to have and to hold the fruit of his own 
labor at the control of his own will." I cannot doubt 
that Dr. Ray has done the same in at least a hundred 
different instances, and especially with regard to Com- 
mon Schools. 

But I offer a still more conspicuous proof of the futil- 
ity of Dr. Ray's proposition : I put in evidence against 
him the City of New York, the Commercial Emporium 
of the New World. Men carelessly say that her won- 
drous gi-owth and unrivalled predominance are the re- 
sults of her great natural advantages : even a com- 
mercial dictionary^ lying before me asserts that " New 
York is indebted, for her wonderfid increase, to her 
admirable situation, which has rendered her the great- 
est emporium of the New World." Yet such is by no 

1 A Cyclopaedia of Commerce. Edited by J. Smith Homans Har- 
per and Brothers. 1858. 
6 



122 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

means the fact. New York was more than two centu- 
ries old before she could be deemed the commercial 
emporium even of this country. Though settled more 
than half a century sooner, New York was long second 
to Philadelphia, and was barely abreast of her down to 
a time far within my recollection. The population of 
the two cities under each Federal Census was, respec- 
tively, as follows : — 

New York. Philadelphia. 

In 1790 29,906 45,250 

In 1800 60,489 70,287 

In 1810 96,373 96,287 

In 1820 . . 120,876 119,325 

In 1830 202,589 167,325 

In 1840 ....... 312,852 258,037 

In 1850 515,547 408,762 

In 1860 . 813,668 568,034 

But other American seaports long disputed the palm 
with New York. Goods were formerly shipped to 
Charleston, S. C, for New York ; Newport once sur- 
passed her in the amount of her shipping ; Norfolk long 
cherished dreams of commercial ascendency, which she 
is just reviving ; while the sudden upspringing of Bal- 
timore, consequent on the rapid settlement of western 
Virginia and eastern Ohio, and her natural excellence of 
position as the point at which the tide-waters of the 
Atlantic approached most nearly the valley of the Ohio, 
render it probable that, in the absence of artificial chan- 
nels for transportation, she would have risen to the 
primacy among American cities. 

But, even before we had emerged from Colonial de- 
pendence, agitation for an artificial water-way between 
the seaboard and the West had commenced. Indeed, a 
rude yet practicable passage-way for boats between the 
Mohawk and Wood Creek, and thus between Schenec- 
tady and Lake Ontario, is said to have been actually ef- 



THE STATE — ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE. 123 

fected so early as 1 768 ; in which year Governor Sir Henry 
Moore recommended to the Colonial Assembly of New 
York a Canal around the rapids in the Mohawk now 
known as Little Falls. Before the Revolution, George 
Washington in Virginia and Christopher Colles of this 
city had severally pondered and agitated the means of 
opening a water communication from the seaboard to the 
West ; and hardly had peace crowned the struggle of 
our fathers for Independence when Mr. Colles, in suc- 
cessive memorials to our State Legislature, and Gen- 
eral Washington (now likewise a private citizen), were 
actively at work. I ask special attention to Washing- 
ton's own simple account-^ of his action in the premises, 
and the views which prompted it : — 

" I have lacely [says he] made a tour through the Lakes 
George and Champlain, as far as Crown Point; then, return- 
ing to Schenectady, I proceeded up the Mohawk River to 
Fort Schuyler, crossed over to Wood Creek, which empties 
into the Oneida Lake, and affords the water communication 
with Lake Ontario ; I then traversed the country to the head 
of the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, and viewed the 
Lake Otsego, and the portage beftween that lake and the 
Moliawk River at Canajoharie. Prompted by these actual 
observations, I coukl not help taking a more contemplative 
and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of the 
Linited States, and could not but be struck with the immense 
diffusion and importance of it, and with the goodness of that 
Providence who lias dealt His favors to us with so profuse a 
hand. Would to God we viay have ivisdom enough to IxMprote 
them." 

Washington, it is clear, was not a Free-Trader. He 
did not believe, with Dr. Ray, that the sole legitimate 
end of government is " to maintain law and order," and 
that to tax for any other purpose is to outrage "the right 
of each citizen of a free country to have and to hold the 

1 Letter to tlie Marquis of Ch:istellux, 1784. 



124 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

fruit of his own labor at the control of his own will." 
After taking, in the Autumn of that year, another tour 
up the Potomac, and so far westward as Pittsburg, ex- 
amining the natural facilities for cutting a Canal by that 
route to connect the waters of the Atlantic with those 
of the Ohio, he wrote to Governor Harrison of Virginia, 
urging the importance of early and decided steps to 
achieve such communication. He sought to interest 
Maryland also in the work, and urged the moral certain- 
ty that New York and Pennsylvania would soon strike 
out vigorously to secure, each for herself, a control of the 
trade of the rapidly growing West ; adding, with char- 
acteristic breadth of vision : — 

" I am not for discouraging the exertions of any State to 
draw the commerce of the Western country to its seaports. 
The more communications we open to it, the closer we find 
that rising world (for, indeed, it may be so called) to our in- 
terests, and the greater strength we shall secure by it. Those 
to whom Nature affords the best communications will, if they 
are wise, enjoy the greatest share of the trade. All T would 
be understood to mean, therefore, is, that the gifts of Provi- 
dence may not be neglected." 

Will any say that Washington expected private indi- 
viduals, in our then infantile and impoverished condition, 
to furnish the means and take the risk of cutting canals 
(then scarcely known out of China) through the wooded 
mountains which separated the settled portions of our 
seaboard States from the lakes and navigable rivers of 
the North and West 1 Hear how he urges on Governor 
Harrison the grave political reasons for effecting such 
communications : — 

" I need not remark to you, Sir, that the flanks and rear of 
the United States are possessed by other powers — and for- 
midable ones too — [Grreat Britain and Spain] ; nor need I 
press the necessity of applying the cement of interest to bind 
all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds, — es- 



THE STATE — ITS POWERS AND DUTIES. 125 

pecially of binding that part of it which lies immediately west 
of us to the Middle States." 

Mr. Colles again petitioned our Legislature on this sub- 
ject in 1786, and was backed by others of greater promi- 
nence and influence. Yet it was not till 1791 that " The 
Western Inland Lock and Navigation Company" was 
chartered, whereby a canal with five locks around the 
" Little Falls" of the Mohawk was constructed in the 
course of the ensuing six or seven years, with another at 
the German Flats, and another connecting Wood Creek 
with the Mohawk, — in all, seven miles of Canal, with 
nine wooden locks. The whole cost $ 400,000, and were 
not worth even that sum ; for the facilities for naviga- 
tion thereby afforded were so meagre and imperfect that 
so little commerce was attracted to this route that it 
never paid expenses. In fact, it was morally impossible 
that any adequate and attractive channel of transporta- 
tion should be created otherwise than by employing the 
resources and credit of the State. 

Here New York paused, as if amazed at her own 
temerity, — our State then containing scarcely more 
than a quarter of a million inhabitants, hardly five 
thousand of whom lived westward of Utica, ^ and gave 
Pennsylvania, with her vastly superior wealth and popu- 
lation, ample opportunity to secure for herself the proud 
position of Empire State, and for her chief city the en- 
during character and prestige of Emporium of American 
Commerce. Ignorance or heedlessness can hardly ex- 
cuse her failure ; for, so early as 1796, Robert Fulton, 
then in Europe, wrote to her Governor (Thomas Mifflin), 
urging her to open a water transit through her ten-itory 
from the seaboard to the Lakes, and adding : — 

" I hope I shall see the time when canals shall pass through 
every vale, wind around each hill, and bind the whole coun- 
try together in bonds of social intercourse.'' 



126 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

He was too sanguine, as great men are apt to be. He 
did not live even to see the Erie Canal commenced. But 
he did live to see its construction directed and assumed 
by the State/ after years of preparatory discussion, sur- 
veying, and estimating, and to be himself chosen one of 
the Commissioners to direct the great enterprise ; but 
War with Great Britain intervened to postpone its actual 
commencement, so that his decease ^ preceded, by more 
than two years, the actual breaking ground ; ^ from which 
date eight years were required to complete the narrow 
and shallow water-ways which first connected the navi- 
gable waters of the Hudson with those of Lakes Cham- 
plain, Ontario, and Erie. The cost of those rudimentary 
canals was about Seven Millions of Dollars ; and there 
are this day One Thousand Millions' worth of prop- 
erty in this City and State, and thrice that amount in 
the Union, more than there would have been had that 
work been postponed for even so short a term as twenty 
years. 

. Yet it evinced far greater courage in our State to un- 
dertake it in 1811 than for the Union, half a century 
later, to resolve that it would have a Railroad from the 
Missouri to the Pacific. 

The commercial ascendency, and consequent rapid 
growth in business, industry, and wealth, of the City of 
New York, are direct and manifest results of the resolu- 
tion of the State, under the lead of De Witt Clinton, 
to construct, on her own responsibility and credit, the 
Erie and Champlain Canals. This resolution was main- 
tained in the face of a formidable and vehement oppo- 
sition, generally upheld by the very City which those 
Canals were to aggrandize beyond the wildest dreams of 
enthusiasts or of speculators in corner-lots. The Canal 

1 April 8, 1811. 3 At Rome, Oneida Co., July 4, 1817. 

2 February 14, 1815. 



THE STATE — ITS POWERS AND DUTIES. 127 

policy was maintaind^d by the strong arms of our Western 
pioneers and small farmers, mainly Yankees, then grow- 
ing Wheat in the rich valleys of the Genesee and Tioga at 
twenty-five to fifty cents per bushel, and intent on having 
a cheaper outlet to the seaboard.^ They reelected De 
Witt Clinton Governor, in 1820, when his defeat was 
deemed inevitable, and when the politicians and journals 
of the lower end of the State were almost a unit against 
him, and when the cry " Fill up the ditch ! " was popular 
in the bar-rooms and around the polls of the Southern 
District. The City of New York owes her present proud 
position to the fact that those Western farmers had not 
studied political economy in the school of negation and 
obstruction, whereof Dr. Ray is a graduate and apostle. 

But opposition to the Canal policy was not confined 
to the region below the Highlands, though there it was 
most rampant. Men who reasoned as Dr. Ray and 
other Free-Traders now do, were heard in every county. 
A respectable Dutch farmer, owning and enjoying a 
goodly estate on the JSIohawk flats, above Schenectady, 
hung himself when he found it impossible to prevent the 
cutting of the hated ditch right through his rich mead- 
ows. Even so late as 1827, 1 heard an innkeeper of fair 
natural powers in Chautauqua County denouncing the 

1 Hon. Jabez D. Hammond, in his cautious and able " Historj' of 
Political Parties in the State of New York," thus characterizes the 
delegation from this City to the Legislature of 1818, whereof he was a 
member: — 

" The members of Assembly from the City of New York were all 
from the hot-bed of Tammany Hall. All of them, with the single ex- 
ception of Cadwallader D. Colden, Avere open and bitter in their denun- 
ciations of the Governor [De Witt Clinton], and the system of internal 
improvements, at the head of which he stood, and with which he was 
identified. They predicted with confidence the entire failure of the 
system, and thence the serious embarrassment and disgrace, if not the 
niin, of the State. They claimed that the reputation of Mr. Clinton 
was staked on the fiite of this system, and they professed their entire 
willingness to abide the result." 



128 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Erie Canal as an unmitigated curse to Western New 
York. Nearly twenty years later, the able and eminent 
Colonel Samuel Young, in a report to the Senate, pro- 
nounced the " songs of internal improvement " " libels 
on the laws of God." The Canal policy of New York 
was fought as recklessly as the Protective policy now is, 
upon the same fundamental assumptions and by essen- 
tially identical arguments. It was stigmatized as a 
device of the speculating, grasping few, to enrich them- 
selves at the expense of the simple, plodding, credulous 
many, by means wholly foreign to the legitimate sphere 
of government. And, if the premises above laid down 
by Dr. Ray are sound, they were cleaiiy right. If he 
knows as much of Political Economy at one should do 
who assumes to teach it, then a State has not, and never 
had, any right to make canals. If his fundamental as- 
sumption is sound, then the Erie Canal is the result of 
a blundering usurpation, and New York has no business 
to be the Commercial Emporium, seeing that she became 
so by reason of our State's flagrant defiance of the nat- 
ural, inalienable Rights of Man. 

I proceed to consider a moderate and plausible affirm- 
ative averment of the doctrine which, in its negative 
application. Dr. Ray seems to me to have overstrained 
and run into the groimd, I quote it from Adam Smith,^ 
as follows : — 

" Every individual is continually exerting himself to find 
out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he 
can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that 
of the society, that he has in view, — but the study of his own 
advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer 
that employment which is most advantageous to the society." 

This is the true and necessary corner-stone of the 

1 Wealth of Nations, Book IV. Ch. IIL 



FREE TRADE AXluMS CONSIDERED. 129 

Free Trade structure. I cannot accept it. It ignores 
the most vital distinctions, and makes him who amasses 
most vvealtla the most useful citizen, contrary to every 
mail's experience and moral perceptions. Here are 
four brothers, who set out resolved to make their way 
in the world ; one of them patiently hewing a farm 
out of the Western wilderness, the second establishing 
a plough-factory, the third opening a grog-shop, and the 
fourth a gaming-house, and each living by and prospering 
in his vocation. Suppose that, as the fruit of thirty years' 
effort, the rumseller has made $ 100,000, and the black- 
leg $ 200,000, while the farmer is worth but $ 10,000, 
and the plough-maker $ 20,000, does it follow that 
the former have been the better citizens, or that their 
manner of life is justified by their thrift ■? Each has 
" studied his own advantage," — has followed that pur- 
suit to which he was attracted, — ^and his choice has been 
crowned with the success to which he aspired ; and, if 
" the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather 
necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which 
is most advantageous to the society," (community,) why, 
then, the blackleg is the most meritorious of the four, 
and has done more good than all the rest. I reject and 
repel the philosophy which leads to such revolting con- 
clusions. I insist that the value to the community of a 
man's efforts is not indicated or measured by the amount 
of his resulting gains, — that one may enrich himself in 
a pursuit or calling which impoverishes and curses his 
neighbors and countrymen. In short, I consider the 
Free Trade premise fallacious, pestilent, and utterly mis- 
taken. 

A later and more skilful presentment of the Free 
Trade theory is contained in the celebrated Petition to 
Parliament of the Merchants and Traders of the City 

6* I 



130 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of London, which Mr. Huskisson deemed so conclusive. 
I will here quote its more essential propositions : — 

" That foreign commerce is eminently conducive to the 
wealth and prosperity of the country, by enabling it to im- 
port the commodities for the production of which the soil, 
climate, capital, and industry of other countries are best cal- 
culated, and to export in payment those articles for which its 
own situation is better adapted ; 

" That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the ut- 
most extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the 
capital and industry of the country ; 

" That the prevailing prejudices in favor of the Protective 
or restrictive system may be traced to the erroneous supposi- 
tion that every importation of foreign commodities occasions 
a diminution or discouragement of our own productions to 
the same extent ; whereas, it may be clearly shown that, al- 
though the particular description of production that could 
not stand against the unrestrained foreign competition would 
be discouraged, yet, as no importation could be continued for 
any length of time without a corresponding exportation, 
direct or indirect, there would be an encouragement, for the 
purpose of that exportation, of some other production, to 
which our situation might be better suited ; thus affording at 
least an equal, and probably a greater, and certainly a more 
beneficial, employment to our own capital and labor." 

I have quoted this petition as the clearest, tersest, 
fairest, most forcible, exposition of the Free Trade doc- 
trine within my knowledge. If there is a better or more 
cogent, I will thank any Free-Trad er except its axithor 
to point it out to me. I ask for this the consideration 
to which its ability, frankness, and calmness so clearly 
entitle it. Let the reader ponder along with it these 
brief comments : — 

I. Its fundamental assumption clearly involves the 
dictum of Adam Smith above quoted, that evert/ man, 
if left to do what he deems most advanta,geous to himself, 
will do what is best for the community. Unhappily, our 



FREE TRADE AXIOMS CONSIDERED. 131 

courts, sherift's, police, prisons, gibbets, are standing 
proofs that this cannot be relied on. Nor would the 
Erie Canal have been seasonably constructed, if ever, 
had every one been left at liberty to contribute or not, as 
he deemed most conducive to his personal interest, and 
to sell the right of carrying it across his land at such 
price as he should see fit to demand. 

II. It is further assumed that, if there be no restric- 
tion on trade, we shall import only those commodities 
which the soil, climate, &c., of other nations enable them 
to produce more advantageously than we can. Abun- 
dant experience has demonstrated that we do and w'ill 
extensivel}' import many commodities for the production 
of which no other country has greater natural advantages 
than our own. We have repeatedly imported a large 
share of our BreadstufFs ; we habitually import largely 
of the Fabrics in which we are clothed, as well as AVool, 
Iron, Wines, &c., &c., for the production of which we 
are as favorably situated as any people on earth. That we 
onffht to import a certain article is no more proved by 
tlie fact that we do import it than the rightfulness of 
many other practices is proved by om- addiction to them. 

III. While it is very true that those from whom we 
buy abroad expect an equivalent for their wares, and 
generally obtain it, it by no means follows that we 
thence secure "at least an equal, probably a gi'eater, 
and certainly a more beneficial, employment to our own 
capital and labor." Throughout the last five or six 
years, we have been buying very largely of European 
Metals, Wares, and F.ibrics, paying therefor in Cotton, 
Wheat, Cheese, Bacon, Lard, &c., so far as these would 
go, and eking out a heavy deficiency by sending over 
ream after ream of the bonds of our Government to 
"comble the deficit." These bonds, having fifteen or 
twenty years to run, drawing six per cent, interest, and 



132 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

payable in coin, we have sold at fifteen to fifty per cent, 
discount from their face, and thereby squared our ac- 
counts from time to time, until it is now understood that 
Europe holds them to the extent of at least Nine Hun- 
dred Millions of Dollars, not to speak of our State bonds. 
Railroad bonds, &c., &c., to the amount, probably, of 
Five Hundred Millions more. The individuals who re- 
mitted these bonds, or exchange drawn by bankers 
against them, in payment for the goods we have eaten, 
drank, or worn out, may have made a profit on each 
transaction, — may very probably have grown rich by 
these dealings ; but I cannot doubt that our country has 
been impoverished by them, — has enjoyed present luxury 
and ease at the cost of future hardship and embarrass- 
ment, = — has played the part of prodigal to that of usurer 
enacted by Europe, — and is bound to sweat and toil 
through many futiu-e years to retrieve the fortunes shat- 
tered by this brief season of reckless, short-sighted 
prodigality. I hold it proved by this ready example 
that a nation which increases lavishly her imports does 
not (as the London Petition asserts) secure thereby " a 
more beneficial employment for her own capital and 
labor," but, on the contrary, may thereby doom herself 
to a cycle of depression, calamity, and unavailing sor- 
row. 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 13:5 



X. 

PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 

I HAVE hitherto sought to demonstrate that the 
founders of this Repubhc — themselves either farmers 
by vocation or the representatives of farmers mainly — 
deliberately and thoughtfully determined to protect and 
develop Home Manufactures, and tliat they did this in 
the conviction that they thereby promoted the interest 
and enhanced the gains of American Agriculture. If 
any one chooses to pronoimce them idiots, I shall not 
here contest the assumption ; but the hypothesis of 
their ignoi'ance of the vital matter in dispute is at war 
with facts mountainous and incontrovertible. Free 
Trade had always a strong party in Congress ; its dog- 
mas and its arguments were essentially as now ; and 
they have no living champion able to present them more 
forcibly than Mr. Webster did in his speech of 1824, 
when John Randolph of Roanoke led the anti-Protec- 
tionists of the Soiath ^ as intrepidly as Mr. Webster did 

1 Hezekiah Niles, in his Weekly Register of May 1, 1824, thus out- 
lines the division by sections and interests that then pervaded the 
Union: — 

" The people of the Middle and Western Stntes are anxious for the 
establishment of domestic manufactures, that they may have a home 
market for their ngiiculturnl products ; and those of the South and South- 
west are opposed to such establishment, because they apprehend it 
will reduce the demand of the foreign market, and so injure their 
agriculture. The people of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, 
are against a Protective Tariff, because it may interfere with a pro- 
tected navigation ; and the small States of Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut are for it, for the reason that it will encourage, if it shall not in- 
crease, the products of their industry." 



134 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



those of the North, — but in vain. The Middle States,'^ 
from New York to Kentucky inchisive, declared /or Pro- 
tection, upon the grounds so forciltly set forth in General 
Jackson's letter (already quoted) of that year to Dr. 
Coleman of Virginia. Those States, — still almost ex- 
clusively Agricultural — decided that to " plant the 
manufacturer by the side of the farmer " was (in Gen- 
eral Jackson's words) the true and sure way to increase 
the recompense of the husbandman's toil — that, even 
though his Metals, his Implements, his Wares, his 
Fabrics, should cost him more money than under Free 
Trade, he would nevertheless pay for them with less 
Produce or Labor ; which was to him the controlling con- 
sideration. Such was their conclusion, after listening for 
years to arguments, pro and con, from statesmen at 
least as able as their successors now living. I, though a 
child in the eai'ly stages of their controversy, was an 
eager and omnivorous reader of those discussions ; my 
judgment thereon was held in abeyance until after 
years of dispassionate inquiry and consideration ; it ulti- 
mately inclined to the conclusions of Hezekiah Niles, 



2 The Tariff of 1824 was 
view to additional Protection 
absent) by 107 Yeas to 102 Ni 

• For the 
bill. 
1 
. 1 
1 
. 2 
5 
. 5 
26 



Maine, 

Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, 
Vermont, 
New York, 
New Jersey, . 
Pennsylvania, . 
Delaware, 
Ohio, 
Kentucky, 



24 
. 1 

14 
. 11 



levied avowedly and exclusively with a 
. It passed the House (only two members 
ays, divided locally as follows : — 
Ag't For the 

it. bill. 

6 Marj'land, 
11 Virginia, . 
5 North Carolina, 
South Carolina, 
Georgia, 
Tennessee, 
Mississippi, . 
Alabama, . 
Louisiania, . 
Missouri, ... 1 
Indiana, . • .2 

Illinois, ... 1 



Ag't 

it. 

6 
21 
13 

9 

7 

7 

1 

3 

3 



PROTECTION FOE AGRICULTURE. 135 

Henry Clay, and Rollin C. Mallary ; ^ and the convic- 
tions then deliberately attained have since remained un- 
clouded and unshaken. 

If controversy is to be prosecuted with a sincere pur- 
pose of arriving at a common and just conclusion, the 
disputants must grapple with and try to comprehend 
each other's positions. I seek, then, the latest authen- 
tic exposition of the Free Trade view of the point I am 
considering, and find it a synopsis of Dr. Francis Lie- 
ber's recent lectures on " Protectionist Fallacies," as 
Professor of Political Economy in Columbia College. 
In his summary report thereof for The Evening Post he 
comes at length to what he terms the Pauper-Labor 
argument, and I read as follows : — 

"It is mere fallacy ; and possibly no [other] argument of 
our Protectionists is so fallacious as this, their most popular, 
because most insinuating, argument. The errors and incon- 
sistencies involved in it are so numerous that little more 
can be done here than barely to enumerate them. 

" All that is meant by American labor in this case is the 
manufacturing labor and that of the artisans, — the workmen, 
as they are styled. But is the farmer not a workman? 
There are far more laborers engaged in farming than in manu- 
facturing and handicrafts, — I believe twice as many. All 
these citizens of our republic are left unprotected against the 
protected workmen; for the farmer has to pay a higher 
price ; that is to say, he must work several days more for ivhat 
he stands in need of than he ivould had not our Legislature 
privileged a particular class called ivorkmen. The farmer cannot 
spend the product of so many days' labor — of which he is 
fobbed for the supposed benefit of another class — for better 
echooling or more respectable dresses for his children, more 
comforts for his wife, more books for himself, or the improve- 
ment of his farm." 

1 Among those •who sustained these conclusions by their votes as 
Senators, in passing the Tariff of 1824, were Andrew Jackson and 
John H. Eaton of Tennessee, Martin Van Bureu of New York, and 
Thomas H. Benton of Missoiiri. 



136 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Dr. Lieber here quietly assumes the vital matter 
in issue, — namely, that the farmer " must work several 
days more for what he stands in need of," under Protec- 
tion than under Free Trade. I will not doubt that such 
is his opinion, which he has a perfect right to propound 
and uphold as such ; but I know nothing in his position 
or achievements which entitles that opinion to pass un- 
challenged when such respectable authorities as Napo- 
leon I., Henry Clay, Walter Forward, A. Alison, Thiers, 
Daniel Webster (from and after 1828), Henry C. Carey, 
&c., &c., are arrayed against him. I hold, with them, 
that the Professor is mistaken, — that the farmer is not 
" robbed " by Protection, even though Manufactures 
only were thereby subjected to duty (which is by no 
means the case), — that he is not thereby required to 
work " several days more " for the wares and fabrics he 
buys, but the contrary. It seems to me self-evident 
that Protection tends to shorten the distance between 
the farmer and the artisan or manufacturer, hence to 
diminish the cost of exchanging their respective pro- 
ducts, and thus to secure to the farmer, not only surer 
and steadier markets for his produce, but an ampler 
recompense for his labor. Such are the conclusions 
that long ago made me a Protectionist. Neither Pro- 
fessor Lieber nor any of his school have even tried to 
convince me that I am in error. They dogmatically 
assume, 1. That home-made Wares and Fabrics must 
cost more money than their imported rivals, — which is 
probable, though not always the case ; and 2. That, if 
they cost more money, they must cost the farmer 
more of his produce or labor, which is quite another 
matter, and which I most confidently deny. I hold 
that the Metals, Wares, and Fabrics, required and 
bought by our farmers, would cost them very much more 
of their produce if, in the absence of Protection, we ob- 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 137 

tained them almost wholly from abroad. As this is the 
vital point, let me elucidate it more fully : — 

I. Distant markets are all but inevitably inconstant, 
uncertain markets. Europe has deficient harvests one 
year, and buys Grain of us quite freely ; but next year 
her harvests are bounteous, and she requires very little 
more food than she produces, no matter how freely we 
may be buying of her fabrics. Hence, our Wheat now 
sells very far below the prices which ruled here when 
Europe had a meagre liarvest. 

II. A heavy export of Wheat and other cereals is a 
virtual exportation of certain of the best elements of 
our soil. It must and will gradually impoverish the 
best soils, and soon exhaust those of medium or lower 
capacity. Thus, the average product of Wheat in this 
country has fallen in the course of the last sixty years 
fi-om twenty-five to twelve bushels per acre, while that 
of Great Britain has risen in like proportion. She has 
drawn away from us much of the best elements of our 
soil, and applied this in good part to the improvement 
of her own. Sixty years ago, Eastern New York was a 
wheat-growing region ; forty years ago, that industry 
had moved westward to the " Holland Purchase," or 
Genesee country ; that, too, in turn gave out, and 
wheat-growing took flight to Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota ; these will in turn be exhausted, 
if crop after crop of Wheat or Corn is grown and shipped 
off, returning little or nothing to the soil. Skilful, 
scientific husbandry dictates that more shall annually be 
given to the soil than is taken therefrom ; but this is 
impracticable where crops so exhaustive as the cereals 
are grown mainly for exportation and shipped away to 
be consumed on another continent.^ 

1 Mr. Creorge E. Waring, in a paper read before the Geographical 
Society of this city, says : — 
" In ray opinion, it would be improper to estimate the total annnal 



138 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

III. A remote market virtually restricts the farmer to 
two or three great staples ; while near markets enable 
him to diversify his products, and thus maintain and 
increase the productive capacity of his sod. 

IV. I will illustrate my general view of the influence 
of Protection, as it affects the Farming interest, by a 
fixmiliar example : — 

The old Scotch-Irish settlement of Londonderry, N. 
H., is now divided into four townships, all devoted to 
Agriculture, as they have been since first settled by 
White men a century and a half ago. With our factories 
and workshops still in Europe, her farmers must pay 
for their Fabrics mainly with Grain and Meat, sold at 
somewhat less than their present (gold) prices. But 
Protection has built up four great manufacturing cen- 
tres — Lowell, Nashua, Manchester, and Lawrence — on 
three sides of old Londonderry, and but five to fifteen 
miles away ; and her farmers supply these with Fuel, 
Timber, Milk, Apples, Hay, &c., at prices which give 
them more than double the return they could realize 
with our workshops still in Europe. They sell thousands 
of cords of Wood for three to five times as much as it 
vrould be worth (uncut) but for the proximity of manu- 
factures. And their advantage is being steadily diffused, 
by the springing up of one or another species of manu- 
facture, aU over the country, — in the South and West 
more rapidly of late than in the North and East. 

Most certainly do I believe that the prices of Home 
Manufactures (estimated in Labor or in Farm Products) 

waste of the country at less than equal to the mineral constituents of 
Jifteen hundred million bushels of corn. To suppose this can continue, 
and we can remain prosperous, is simply ridiculous. As yet, we have 
much virgin soil, and it will be long ere we reap the full fruits of our 
improvidence ; but it is merely a question of time. With our earth- 
butchery and prodigality, we are each year losing the intrinsic essence 
of our vitality." 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 139 

tend steadily downward, — that a hundred bushels of 
Wheat or Corn, a ton of Beef or Pork, a load of Apples 
or of Potatoes, will buy far more Iron, or Cloth, or 
Hardware, in 18G9, than it would have done in any anti- 
Protective era of our country. Though the money 
prices of American fabrics should range even fifty per 
cent, higher than those of their Foreign-made rivals, I 
hold it the true policy of our farmers to encoui'age and 
prefer the home-made, because they thus advance their 
own interest by enlarging, quickening, and rendering 
constant the demand for their products, while securing 
better prices for them. 

If STich be not the fact, why is it that the farmers of 
the British " Dominion " north of us are selling their 
lands at low I'ates, and even (in some cases) deserting 
them unsold, to buy and work dearer lands within the 
bounds of our Union 1 They have lower taxes and a 
lighter debt in Canada; they have cheap British fabrics, 
imported under low revenue duties ; and they have no 
serious political grievance or discontent ; yet they are 
crossing over to us this year as never before ; and they 
come to stay. If Free Trade is better for the farmer, 
why do they not stay where they can enjoy it 1 If Pro- 
tection is not the impulse to this exodus, why have they 
not so poured in upon us before 1 

Benjamin Franklin, writing home from London in 1771, 
while these States were still British colonies, and their 
manufactures systematically discouraged and repressed 
by the mother country, thus happily indicates the inter- 
dependence of Agriculture and Home Manufactures : — 

" Every manufacturer encouraged in our country makes 
part of a market for provisions within ourselves, and saves so 
much money to the country as must otherwise be exported 
to pay for the manufactures he supplies. Here in England it 
is well known and understood that wherever a manufacture 



140 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

is established which employs a number of hands it raises the 
value of land in the neighboring country all around it. It 
seems, therefore, the interest of our farmers and owners of 
land to encourage our young manufactures in preference to 
foreign ones." 

The essential fact here noted is one which any one 
may verify by personal observation. Let it be noised 
abroad that a " city of spindles " is soon to be erected on 
some great waterfall hitherto unimproved and useless, 
and how quickly every farmer in the vicinity advances 
the price of his land ! He may be an ultra Free-Trader, 
— he may seem to detest Manufactures as corrupting, 
or on some other ground ; but he none the less realizes 
that his farm is worth far more to-day than it was yes- 
terday. It is so for the same reason that a landlord who 
lives on his estates and spends his income in the vicinity 
is more popular with his tenants than if he spent his 
means in distant cities and foreign capitals. Economists 
may seem to demonstrate that the difference is ideal or 
sentimental, but the tenants know better. 

That the farmer who has an ample market at his door 
may and will diversify his products, improve or at least 
retain the better qualities of his soil by a rotation of 
crops, and return to that soil the elements which culti- 
vation has exhausted, is plain. On this point, Henry 
C. Carey -^ happily says : — 

" Steadiness and regularity in the returns to agricultural la/- 
bor grow with increase in the^ variety of commodities to the 
production of which the land may be devoted. Disease, too, 
tends to disappear as population grows, and a market is cre- 
ated on or near the land. The poor laborer of Ireland sees 
his crop of potatoes perish of rot, consequent on the unceas- 
ing exhaustion of the soil ; and the agriculturist of Portugal 
witnesses the destruction of his hopes by the constant recur-- 

1 Carey's Social Science, Chap. XVI. p. 34. 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 141 

rence of the vine disease ; while the American farmer is 
perpetually visited by blight, resulting from the necessity for 
constantly withdrawing from the soil the material required 
for enabling it fully to supply the ever-recurring crop of 
wheat. The man who has a market at his door hnds both 
blight and insects vanish from his land, and is further enabled, 
from year to year, more fully to profit by the discoveries of 
scientific men, and by their aid to free himself from disturbing 
causes that have hitherto brought loss to himself or others ; 
thus making his pursuit so nearly certain in its results as to 
add largely to the value of his labor and his land.'' 

Mr. E. B. Ward, an extensive iron-master in the West, 
addressing the farmers of Wisconsin,^ correctly says : — 

'' Protection to home industry is the business of a good 
Government, and its advocacy the duty of the intelligent and 
enlightened citizen. Not monopoly for the benefit of any 
one class, but Protection to that degree needed to encourage 
manufactures and benefit farmers, and keep our balance of 
trade healthy. You do not need a tariff on wheat to pre- 
vent its import from Europe, for the freight is a tariff; but a 
roll of English or German cloth is a car-load of cheap foreign 
corn, packed in small compass ; and if you buy it you help to 
keep down the price of your grain to its level. Better make 
it here, and have your home market govern a price that shall 
rule higher than in Liverpool or Hamburg." 

To the same effect, substantially, Adam Smith, in his 
" Wealth of Nations," says : — 

" The increase and riches of commercial and manufacturing 
towns contribute to the improvement and cultivation of the 
countries to which they belong in three different ways: First, 
by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce 
of the country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation 
and further improvement. This benefit was not even con- 
fined to the countries in which they were situated, but ex- 
tended more or less to all those with which tliey had any 
dealings. To all of them, they afforded a market for some 

1 At their State Fair, Madison, October 1, 1868. 



142 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

part either of their rude or manufactured produce, and, colflfifi- 
quently, gave some encouragement to the industry ana n.i- 
provement of all. Their own country, however, on accjunt 
of its neighborhood, necessarily derived the greatest benefit 
from this market. Its rude produce being charged with less 
carriage, the traders could pay the growers a better price for 
it, and yet afford it as cheap to the consumers as that of more 
distant countries." 

This view of the importance to Agriculture of the 
proximity of Manufactures is strikingly corroborated by 
Alderman Mechi,^ one of the foremost practical farmers 
and land-improvers in Great Britain, who says : — 

" It is precisely because British farmers have their custom- 
ers — the British manufacturers — almost at their doors, and 
that other corn-producing countries have not any manufac- 
turers, that British Agriculture is rich and thriving." 

The Eev. Lyman Beecher,^ preaching to a congrega- 
tion of farmers, in the infancy of our manufactures, 
under the head of " The encouragement and successful 
prosecution of Agriculture," says : — 

" I have mentioned a steady market, and a fair profit, as 
among the encouragements to be afforded to agriculture. No 
human skill can, indeed, control the ejements, or regulate 
the seasons, so as to secure the equable fruitfulness of the 
earth in this or other climes, or so control the family of 
nations as to prevent the fluctuation of demand and price, 
occasioned by the interchange of peace and war. But much 
may be done, by a wise policy, to check these fluctuations of 
the market, and especially to withhold them from extremes 
which are destructive to national industry. No calamity is 
greater than a capricious market, baffling the sober, extended 
calculations of industry, and converting the husbandmen of a 
nation into a body of speculators, tempting at one time by 

1 How to Farm Profitably; or, The Sayings and Doings of Mr. 
Alderman Mechi. London, 1864. 

. 2 Thanksgiving Sermon on " The Means of National Prosperity": 
Litchfield, Connecticut, December 2, 1819. 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 143 

high prices to adventurous purchases and lavish family ex- 
penses, and then, by the glut of the market and the fall of 
pioduce, dashing the hopes of thousands of families, and rear- 
ing upon their ruins a moneyed aristocracy. A steady mar- 
ket and a fair profit, for the products of the field, are among 
the greatest national blessings and noblest objects of national 
policy. Like the steady attraction of the sun, they keep up 
the motion of surrounding bodies, and, like his light, diffuse 
cheerfulness and activity through all the works of God. 
With these remarks in view, I am prepared to say : — 

" Secondly : That the Protection and encouragement of our 
manufactures is essential to national prosperity. 

"Manufacturing establishments, by the introduction of 
machinery and the division of labor, save time, and give us 
the consequences, while they save the sustenance and wages, 
of increased population. They afford employment also to 
classes of the community which would otherwise be idle 
or less usefully employed, call into action the diversity of 
talents with which God has endowed men, and lay open to 
the active mind of enterprise a greater choice of employ- 
ment, and more powerful incitements to industry. But the 
vital utility of manufactures consists in their subserviency 
to agriculture, by affording to the husbandman a near and 
steady home market, and by diminishing the competition of 
exported produce in foreign markets, increasing the demand 
and the price. It gives him the advantage of two markets 
instead of one : the home market a steady one, and the for- 
eign market less fluctuating and more productive than if 
glutted by the entire surplus product of a great agricultural 
nation. In the mean time, instead of quickening the industry 
and augmenting the resources of other nations, we stimulate 
and augment the capital of ou^ own nation 

" National industry is national wealth. That policy which 
secures productive employment to the greatest portion of the 
population of a nation, consults her highest prosperity. But 
this can be accomplished so efifectually, by no means, as by 
making the manufacturers of the nation the customers of the 
farmer, and the farmers the customers of the manufacturer. 
If we would be independent in reality of other nations, we 



144 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

must encourage agriculture, by the steady demand of a home 
market, and secure within ourselves the capital which results 
from the manufacture of our own raw material. The foreign 
market is always precarious and partial, from the vicissitudes 
of peace and war, plenty and want, as well as from restric- 
tions upon imports endlessly varied by nations to protect 
from foreign competition the industry of their own subjects. 
In this manner, foreign nations exert an efficient legislation 
over our own substance, and raise or sink the value of our 
property often from fifteen to fifty per cent. Such a state of 
uncertainty and subjection to foreign caprice no nation ought 
to endure. In time of war, if we depend on foreign mar- 
kets, our produce is often excluded from its accustomed 
market, and our supply of imports, made necessary by habit, 
comes to us at enhanced prices, and finds us with our produce 
rotting upon our hands, and without the means of purchase." 

President Monroe was inaugurated in 1817, and in 
his Inaugural Address, and in every one of his six suc- 
ceeding Annual Messages, urged upon Congress the duty 
and policy of affording additional Protection to our strug- 
gling Manufactures. I will cite but a single passage, 
from his third Annual Message,^ wherein he treats of the 
occasional shipment to our ports of the surplus products 
which accumulate in foreign workshops, and their sale 
here at exceptionally low prices, as injurious to our peo- 
ple. Here is the passage, which the disciples of Mill and 
Bastiat may ponder at their leisure : — 

" An additional cause of the depression of these establish- 
ments may probably be found in the pecuniary embarrassments 
which have recently affected those countries with which our 
coQimerce has been principally prosecuted. Their manufac- 
tures, for want of a ready and profitable market at home, 
have been shipped by the manufacturers to the United States, 
and, in many instances, sold at a price below their current 
value at the place of manufacture. Although this practice 
may, from its nature, be considered temporary or contingent, 
it is not on that account less injurious in its effects. Uniform- 
1 December 7, 1819. 



PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE. 145 

ity in the demand and price of an article is highly desirable 
to the domestic manufacturer. It is deemed of great impor- 
tance to give encouragement to our domestic manufactures. 
In what manner the evils adverted to may be remedied, and 
how far it may be practicable iu other respects to afford to 
them further encouragement, paying due regard to all the 
other great interests of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom 
of Congress." 

I might continue these citations indefinitely ; but my 
end is attained if I have clearly exhibited the spirit in 
which the fomidations of our Protective policy were laid, 
the liberal and comprehensive aims of its authors and 
champions. They were mainly farmers, or the represent- 
atives of farming constituencies ; yet they never sought 
to build up Agriculture on the downfall of any other 
producing interest. They did not place the industry 
wherewith they were most immediately connected in 
antagonism to any other ; they realized that the thrift 
of each was identified with the well-being of all The 
American System — as they proudly and happily named 
it — was a system of enlightened, thoughtful, and gen- 
erous consideration for every Home interest and indus- 
try, — a system which recognized in the prosperity and 
growth of Manufactm-es the assurance of constant, 
ample markets and fair prices for the products of our 
Agriculture, with steady emplojonent at living rates for 
our Shipping and healthful activity, with liberal profits 
and infrequent bankruptcies, for our Commerce. If they 
erred, — as I am confident they did not, — they eired 
not through envy, or meanness, or narrow, sordid con- 
ceptions of National policy, but in obedience to the dic- 
tates of a statesmanship broad as our country's horizon. 
The principles they enunciated were of universal appli- 
cation, and their sympathies, though more immediately 
contemplating our own people, embraced and compre- 
hended all human kind. 

7 ' 



146 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XI. 

MANUFACTUEES AND THEIR NEEDS. 

We are accustomed to regard all Metals, Wares, and 
Fabrics, as Manufactures, which in one sense they are ; 
yet it is manifest, on reflection, that these divide natu- 
rally, in the contemplation of Political Economy, into 
two distinct classes, — 1. That wherein nearly twice as 
much labor would be required to double the present ag- 
gregate product ; 2. That which is subject to a different 
law. Thus, if we should require twice the amount of 
Iron we now buy or use, it would probably cost at least 
double what we now pay for the smaller quantity ; 
whereas, there are many fabrics of which (like newspa- 
pers) the number or quantity furnished might be doubled 
at much less than double the present cost. Half a cen- 
tury ago, when Ploughs and other farming-implements 
were mainly made by hand, their fabrication probably 
cost more per piece, per dozen, per score, in this country 
than in Europe ; whereas, apart from the cost of the raw 
material, we probably now make, by the help of steam- 
power and costly, complicated machinery, nearly every 
farm-implement, edge-tool, screw, cut-nail, &c., as cheap 
as they are made abroad, — some of them even cheaper, 
— and all of them cheaper than we possibly could if we 
had not a steady market and a vast demand. That arti- 
cles of this class have been and are cheapened to the 
mass of our consumers by reason of Protection to Home 
Industry, is not doubtful ; while it is probable that a 
majority of our consumers are required to pay more dol- 
lars (not days' work, nor products) per pound or per ton 



MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS. 147 

for Iron, Wool, Salt, Steel, and a few other rude, bulky 
staples, than if, in the absence of a tariff, we mainly im- 
ported them. Wherever Machinery does little, leaving 
nearly all to be effected by Manual effort, and 100,000 
tons of the product costs one hundred times as much as 
1,000 tons, there Cheap Labor tells, and insures a lower 
price ; but its influence is much less sensibly felt in the 
production of most Wares and Fabrics whereon Steam 
and Machinery have fidl play, and which are cheapened, 
not by low wages, but by the extensive demand, and the 
signal efficiency of the means whereby that demand is 
satisfied. It is probable, indeed, that American ingenu- 
ity and invention, applied to the production of Iron and 
Steel, may increase the efficiency of the labor or other 
force employed therein, rendering each day's work, each 
ton of coal, twice, or even thrice, as efficient as they now 
are, — and this anticipation rests upon and is justified 
by past achievements ; but such triumphs are contin- 
gent, and not likely to be promptly realized, while the 
advantages of larger and steadier markets for most Wares 
and F'abrics are instant and palpable. The People must 
decide whether we are to surrender either imperilled de- 
partment of our National Industry to be overwhelmed 
by foreign competition, or shall effectually resolve to 
protect and preserve them both. 

Our Revolutionary fathers were frank as well as saga- 
cious, and realized the wisdom of saying exactly what 
you mean. Hence the preamble to the very first Tariff 
which passed Congress ^ under the Federal Constitution 
declares that such Tariff was required " for the support 
of Government, for the discharge of the debts of the 
United States, and for the encouragement and protection 
of domestic mannfactures." The duties thereby imposed 
were generally quite low ; but there was no equivocation 

1 Approved by Presideut Washington, July 4, 1789. 



148 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

or concealment as to the objects for which they were 

levied. 

. But why protect especially Manufactures ? 

I answer, For the same reason that we fortify our chief 
harbors and our frontier posts rather than the mountains 
and prairies in the heart of our country. We defend 
the National Industry, like the National territory, at the 
points most exposed to assault, or where an enemy could 
do us greatest harm. The 'bulk and weight of most ag- 
ricultural staples forbid their transportation to remote 
markets except at ruinous cost. The abundance and 
cheapness of our arable lands, with the intelligence and 
efficiency of our labor, and the excellence of our farming 
machinery and implenients, secure signal advantages to 
our grain-growers, and render them impregnable to dii-ect 
European competition. If Europe would give us all the 
Indian Corn and Hay we want or would consume, we 
could not transport them to our inland consumers so aa 
to afford them as cheaply as they are now supplied. The 
transportation of most Vegetables and Edible Roots, — 
Potatoes, Tixrnips, Carrots, Cabbages, &c., — is rendered 
so expensive by their bulk, that few of them would be 
brought hither from Europe for sale under any but the 
most extraordinary circumstances. Potatoes in moderate 
quantities reach us from Bermuda and from Nova Scotia ; 
the Canadas proffer us cheap Grain and Timber ; while 
we still send to the farthest East for Tea, because that 
article embodies larger value in a given bulk than almost 
any other product of the soil ; but I am confident that 
we should have commenced its production years ago, and 
that we shall soon ascertain that we could long have 
grown it cheaper than we have imported it. So with 
Raw Silk, Willow (for baskets, &c.), Sugar, and some 
other ainmanufactured or easily manufactured products of 
the soil, with which we could have supplied ourselvea 



MANUFAC-rDKES AND THEIR NEEDS. 149 

from domestic sources cheaper (in labor, if not in money) 
than we have imported them. We have persisted in 
buying abroad from habit, lack of consideration, and be- 
cause the establishment or natiu*alization of a new branch 
of industry always costs something at the outset, while 
Trade glides easily in the grooves worn smooth by cus- 
tom and oiled by successive realizations of profit. Even 
Cotton was made at a loss by 'our people until Whitney's 
Gin — which would never have been invented had not 
the culture been previously naturalized on our soil — re- 
duced at once the cost of production by fifty to seventy- 
five per cent. 

We have yet some Agricultural staples to root firmly 
in our soil or extend over a far greater area thereof; 
yet the general truth, so earnestly and frequently pro- 
claimed by the fathers, abides, — that our Agriculture is 
mainly to be benefited and strengthened by bringing 
ample and steady markets nearer and nearer to the 
doors of our farmers. Give them purchasers at hand 
for Vegetables, Edible Roots, Fruits, &c., and they will 
cultivate their land better, exhaust it less, and realize 
far gi-eater returns and profits per acre, than they could 
while, depending on remote markets, they were com- 
pelled to grow crop after crop of Grain. They will now 
reclaim and cultivate the rich bottom lands, which, 
being saturated and sodden with stagnant water, have 
hitherto been neglected as worthless or intractable ;^ 
and they will realize more from an acre of vegetables or 
small fruits than formerly from ten acres of grain ; and 
thus, mainly, will Protection benefit our fanners, — as 
was originally anticipated and sought. 

1 In the old County of Westchester, N. Y., which has been farmed 
for two Imndred to two hnndred and fifty years, some thousands of 
acres of these richest lands are ju=t be<rinning to be improved and 
cultivated; not one-fourth of them liave yet felt the point of a plough. 



150 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

" But why do Manufactures need Protection ? " is 
asked to-day, as though it were a novel question. T 
answer : -^— 

I. Because of the relative dearness of our Labor. A 
ton of good Bar Iron we may roughly estimate as the 
embodiment of thirty days' faithful and in part skilful 
human labor. In Belgium or France, this labor costs 
tw^enty-live dollars, and, were Ore and Coal there abundant 
and accessible, would cost still less ; in Great Britain, Ore 
and Coal are far more abundant and cheaper, while 
Labor is paid rather higher, so that the Iron costs a 
little less ; in this country, considerably more, mainly 
because Labor is dearer with us. We thus have our 
choice, — between importing most of our Iron or pro- 
tecting the home production. Now, I never made any 
Iron, nor had any other than a public, general interest 
in making any, while I have bought and used many 
thousands of dollars' worth, in the shape of power- 
presses, engines, boilers, building-plates, &c. It is my 
interest, you say, to have cheap Iron. Certainly : but I 
buy Iron, not (ultimately and really) with money, but 
with the product of my labor, — that is, with news- 
papers ; and I can better afford to pay seventy dollars 
per ton for Iron made by men who can and do buy 
American newspapers than take it for fifty dollars of 
those who rarely see and never buy one of my products. 
The money price of the American Iron may be higher, 
but its real cost to me is less than that of the British 
Iron. And my case is that of the great body of Ameri- 
can farmers and other producers of exchangeable wealth. 
We have somewhat cheapened Iron by American in- 
ventions and improved processes ; we shall doubtless 
cheapen it still further if we cherish and uphold its 
production among us ; yet I apprehend that this (unlike 
several other branches of manufacture) is one of the 



MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS. 151 

staples on which Cheap Labor tells so directly and 
powerfully that we can never make it for so few dollars 
as it may be produced for somewhere else. Still, it 
seems to me plain that our true interest as a people 
requires that we henceforth produce it far more exten- 
sively than we have ever yet done. 

II. Because, in a subordinate degree, of the relative 
scarcity and dearness of Capital among us. We are stiU 
a young people, and lack the vast accumulations of Capi- 
tal that Great Britain and France can boast. We have 
few or no families that have been engaged in manufac- 
turing for a century or more, and have amassed wealth 
therein. In order to obtain the large capital required 
to erect and stock a great manufactory, we have to form 
joint-stock companies, and drum for subscriptions on 
every side. Those who invest want good dividends, re- 
garding the business as hazardous ; while our long- 
established and well-known foreign rivals can borrow at 
five per cent. This gives them a decided advantage, 
which they are not slow to improve. 

III. They have the advantage of us, moreover, in an 
abundance of artisans of eminent experience and skill. 
We have rapidly gained on them since the enactment of 
the Tariff of 1861 ; still, we have much to learn, — or 
rather, we need to teach and perfect a good many of our 
people in arts wherein Europe has yet the advantage of 
us. 

IV. Our Railroad system, though extensive and rapidly 
extending, is still far less perfect, as a handmaid to 
Manufactures, than the British, which connects almost 
every ore-bed with almost every coal-mine on the island. 
It was but a few years since, that the great Sterling 
iron-mines of our State and New Jersey were connected 
by rail with tide-water in the Hudson ; the first railroad 
from a Champlain ore-bed to the Lake was opened this 



152 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Summer ; the connection of our Copake (Columbia 
County) iron-mines with the Hudson by rail is not yet 
complete. Only last Winter, I saw a long string of 
teams drawing on sleds Iron Ore from the beds in 
Amenia (Dutchess Coimty) to the furnaces in Connecti- 
cut, six or eight miles away. In England, a railroad 
would have been doing the work at less than half the 
cost at least ten years ago. In Missouri, Illinois, and 
even in Indiana, large sums are being this year ex- 
pended to bring together Ore, Coal, and Limestone, far 
cheaper than hitherto. At Pittsbm-g, I saw Steel 
extensively made, eighteen months since, from ores 
freighted thither from Lake Champlain, New Jersey, 
and Lake Superior respectively, — none of them brought 
less than three hundred, and most of them over five 
hundred .miles. We shall shorten and cheapen these 
routes, or we shall find the requisite ores at points much 
nearer each other. Every year of successful production 
wears smoother the ways over which our raw materials 
glide to meet each other. Give us time ! 

V. As to Textile Fabrics, France has a great advan- 
tage over us as the dictator of fashions, the arbiter of 
taste ; while Great Britain has still greater in the fact 
that her goods obtained possession of the world's mar- 
kets during the great wars which followed the French 
Revolution, when her flag had nearly swept the seas, 
and her forces held at least temporary possession of near- 
ly all the isles of the main. To this day, the invisible 
threads of Commerce centre at London : if Calicoes or 
De Laines, Flannels or Hosiery, are wanted in Australia 
or China, Venezuela or Peru, the dealer looks to England 
as the natural source of supply, and is but dimly con- 
scious that there is any other. Facility of quick distri- 
bution over a vast area is one of the vital elements of 
cheap and profitable production for all fancy fabrics in 



MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS. 153 

our day, when a wide and eager demand is indispensable 
to cheap and profitable production. 

VI, Foreign fabrics have great advantages over ours, 
even in our own markets, because of the popular pre- 
sumption that their colors are more durable or their 
styles more attractive. We have no such pride in wear- 
ing our own fabrics as has been patriotically and be- 
neficently evinced by other people. Too many of our 
merchants and merchant tailors habitually disparage 
American fabrics and exalt those of our European rivals, 
which they sell at higher prices and larger profits be- 
cause they are foreign. Some jobbers, having sold a 
foreign fabric at fifty cents per yard till it has lost the 
gloss of novelty, will order an American imitation of it 
at a far lower price ; and, when it is seen to he an imita- 
tion, will say, " Of course, it is inferior in style and 
texture: what do you expect of American fabrics?" — 
when in fact it is exactly what they ordered and paid for. 

VII. The clews of trade, right here in New York, are 
in foi'eign hands and wielded in subordination to foreign 
interests. Let me give an example : — 

Dr. Crosby, of New Haven, Conn., recently invented 
most ingenious machinery for the manufacture of Fish- 
Hooks, by which they are automatically fashioned from 
a coil of wire nearly as fast as cut-nails are made, — are 
bent, pointed, barbed, flattened at the head, &c., more 
perfectly than could be done by manipulation. Every 
size, from pin to cod, is made with equal facility and per- 
fection. Having finished a qxiantity, he sent a sample 
consignment of them down to a New York house which 
led the trade ; but they were rejected, as not of standard 
excellence. Again he sent a consignment, with a similar 
result. A third time he tried, accompanying his wares, 
and expressing a hope that these would answer, — but 
no ; they were not up to the mark. " Why, gentlemen," 
7* 



154 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

he remonstrated, " these ought to suit you ; for they are 
British hooks, bought from your own store, and 'packed in 
my boxes to test you^ Of course, that did not signify; 
the jobbers were resolved to keep the market for their 
British friends ; and they had the power. 

VIII. Our American manufactm-ers have not, as a 
class, made the proper and requisite efforts to cause the 
quality and cheapness of their Wares and Fabrics to be 
generally known. They have confined their efforts to 
the Trade, — that 'is, the jobbers of our great cities, — ■ 
when they should have appealed directly and earnestly 
to the People. If consumers generally knew how much 
De Laines (for example) have been cheapened since we 
began to make them here, — how much this home manu- 
facture has done to cheapen them, — that knowledge 
would exert a most salutary influence. So of Merrimac 
Prints, and other of our standard fabrics. No people 
who wholly import their manufactures are or can be so 
cheaply and amply supplied with them as ours are at this 
moment. " Dear-bought and far-fetched " is a trite old 
saw, drawn from the heart of universal human experi- 
ence. I am assiired that Bessemer Steel Rails (British) 
were selling here at $ 150 per ton till the first American 
furnace commenced turning them out, when they dropped 
suddenly to $ 110 per ton. 

The history of the Watch-manufacture in this country 
is full of instruction and encouragement. Though we 
had made our own Clocks, and some to sell, for a half- 
century, we had depended entirely on Europe for our 
Watches, down nearly or quite to 1860, when the manu- 
factory at Waltham, Mass., after one or two failures, fell 
into the hands of its present managers. They soon ap- 
pealed directly to the masses for judgment and patron- 
age ; sold every Watch distinctly and proudly as Ameri- 
can, and challenged the world to surpass their products 



MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS. 155 

either iu excellence or cheapness ; and, by the disburse- 
ment of many thousands per annum in advertising, as 
well as by making a good article and selling it cheap, 
gradually imprinted on the public mind a conviction of 
the truth of their claims. Their Watches sold more 
and more extensively month after month, as they were 
enabled, by extending their works, perfecting their pro- 
cesses, and increasing the number of their workmen, to 
improve the production ; until we are this day making 
most of the Watches we require, — mslking more than we 
ever imported in the years happily past. For not only 
does the original Watch-manufactory at Waltham con- 
tinue to prosper, and enlarge its borders, but several 
rivals have recently sprung into existence in different 
parts of our country, under the stimulus aftbrded by the 
emphatic success of the pioneer enterprise. I confident- 
ly predict that the day is not distant when we shall ex- 
port Watches as regularly and as extensively as we have 
long exported Clocks, — sending them even to China, — 
and I believe this triumph is due not more to the ability 
evinced at Waltham to make good Watches cheaply than 
to the judicious energy and enterprise exhibited by 
Messrs. Robbins & Appleton in making their excellence 
universally known. What has been done bj- them is im- 
portant mainly as showing what may, to like profit, Na- 
tional as well as personal, be done in many other depart- 
ments of manufacturing industry. 

IX. The dishonest practice of labelling or stamping- 
American manufactiires as though of foreign origin has 
exerted a most baleful influence over our industrial pro- 
gress. All know that the fluid sold as Champagne in 
this country is mainly a home-made concoction of cider 
and drugs ; and, whether this be or be not more hiu'tful 
than the French liquor it personates, it is reprehensible 
as a coimterfeit and a fraud. A leading American pro- 



156 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

ducer of pure wines from grapes of his own growing re^ 
centlj assured me that he had been shown through a 
great establishment in this city, whence thousands of 
bottles of wines of various kinds and brands were sent 
forth daily, yet into which no drop of grape-juice ever 
entered. I was once sitting with some two hundred 
others, at a public dinner-table, when my left-hand neighs 
bor (a total stranger), seeing that I drank no wine, ab- 
ruptly remarked : " You do not know that this Cham- 
pagne was not imported from France." I now looked at 
his bottle for the first time, and replied : " No ; I can 
say nothing as to the origin of the liquor, for I know 
nothing ; but that inscription on the cork, ' Champagne 
au Rheims,' is made by Yankee type, — I could swear to 
it in Egypt, — no Frenchman ever cut type like that." 
I am told, but do not credit, that the latest achievement 
in this department of home manufacture is the produc- 
tion of Champagne from Petroleum, and that the new 
fabric has large currency and popularity in those metro- 
politan haunts whither rural greenhorns eagerly flock, 
under cover of darkness, to " see life." I trust that a 
moderate quantity of the beverage suffices to assuage 
their thirst. 

This whole business of fabricating on our own soil 
imitations of foreign products, to be palmed off as genu- 
ine, is not merely dishonest and fearfully demoralizing ; 
it tends to discredit and degrade American manufactxires 
generally. A coimterfeit can hardly fail to be inferior in 
serviceable qualities to the thing counterfeited ; he who 
will affix a fraudulent label or trade-mark to his product, 
in the expectation that he may thereby sell it more read- 
ily or for a higher price, will rarely hesitate to cheat in 
the substance as well as the show ; while the talent he 
devotes to making his product pass for that which it is 
not will inevitably be subtracted from that which he 



MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS. 157 

should apply to perfecting that product. And, besides, 
the true workman has an honest pride in his work ; he 
wishes its excellence to be seen and honored as his : make 
him conceal his name behind a false label, and he is no 
longer impelled to do his best. He is tempted to rest 
content with perfection in the label or trade-mark, and 
neglect the fabric or product it knavishly commends. 
The consuming public, thus defrauded, is led to associate 
conceptions of inferiority and dishonesty with that of 
domestic production, — to consider " home-made " and 
" worthless " all but synonymous tenns. Vigilant search 
for, public exposure and condign punishment of, every 
instance wherein a home-made article is ticketed or in 
any way sought to be palmed off as of foreign origin, are 
demanded by the interests alike of public morality, jus- 
tice to those whose trade-mark is thus counterfeited, pro- 
tection to consumers, and the prosperity, progress, and 
good name, of legitimate American manufactures. 

I have thus glanced at some of the more formidable 
impediments to the growth, stability, and complete suc- 
cess, of American manufacturing industry. Some of 
them are incident to its comparative infancy, — there 
being scarcely a market, our own included, where Euro- 
pean fabrics have not preceded and forestalled ours ; and 
all must realize that it is far less difficult to retain a 
market than to wrest it from its established possessors. 
Others are the fruits of mistakes and shortcomings on 
the part of our manufacturers ; and these they must be 
admonished to correct, or abide the consequences. But 
there remain a large and important class deeply grounded 
in the relative dearness of American Labor ; and these 
I hold it the Nation's interest and duty to counteract 
and overcome, by the imposition or retention of such 
rates of duty on the foreign rivals of our products aa 



158 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

will enable our producers, with reasonable skill and ef- 
ficiency on their part, to retain the control of our own 
markets, and not be driven therefrom by a foreign com- 
petition rendered overwhelming by the far cheaper Labor 
and more abundant as well as cheaper Capital of Europe. 
Suppose the markets of the world divisible into one 
hundred equal parts, seventy-five of which are now pos- 
sessed exclusively by the manufacturers of Europe, while 
but twenty-five are shared by them with those of this 
country, I hold it neither fair, just, nor beneficent, that 
our artisans and artificers should compete for these 
twenty-five on the same terms with those who already 
exclusively hold by preemption the larger number. To 
secure, by discriminating imposts, our own markets to 
our own fabricants seems to me just to them, beneficent 
to our country and all her people, and conducive to the 
steady progress and diff"usion of industrial art through- 
out the world. 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS RIGHTS. 159 



XIL 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS RIGHTS, INTER- 
ESTS, DUTIES, AND NEEDS. 

If there be those who would aiTay Labor against 
Capital, I am uot of them, nor with tliem. If there be 
those who regard the interests of Labor and of Capital 
as naturally or properly antagonistic, I do not agree 
with them. In using the term " Laboring Class " or 
" Working Men," I conform to a usjxge which has the 
recommendation of convenience, and hardly another. 
In my view, there should be none other than laborers, 
save the infantile, the disabled, and the dead ; and 
there are not neai'ly so many non-laborere as is 
vulgarly supposed. The rum-seller is a worker, 
though to no good end ; even the gambler evinces in- 
dnstiy, though to very bad purpose. If I had the 
ordering of human affairs, I would have every one an 
apprentice of some sort in youth, a worker for wages (or 
something equivalent thereto) in early manhood (or 
womanhood), and every one his or her own employer at 
a later stage ; so that the class of hired workers should 
be constantly receiving recruits on one side and dismiss- 
ing skilled, experienced persons to enter upon graver 
responsibilities on the other. I would have every jour- 
neyman realize that he will soon be an emplo^-er, every 
employer remember that he was once a journeyman, as 
his son (if son he have) soon will be ; and I believe the 
influence of these contemplations would be salutary on 
all alike. I do not like to hear a man boast that he has 
been a hireling these twenty or thirty years, and expects 



160 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

to remain such till death ; for, though it be true that no 
man should be ashamed of a humble position, I qualify 
the statement by the proviso that he has had no fair 
opportunity to rise above it. A true man will much 
prefer to shoulder a hod or sweep streets rather than eat 
the bread of idleness and dependence; but, either our 
political institutions are mistakes, or a hale, two-handed 
person, who has not been pulled down by unavoidable 
misfortune, should be ashamed that, having had twenty 
years' control of his own time and faculties, he still finds 
hod-carrying or street-sweeping the best thing he is asked 
or enabled to do. If I had had a fair chance to do for 
myself for even twenty years, and could now find no 
better employment than the rudest and coarsest day- 
labor, I should accept the situation, but not be inclined 
to brag of it. 

Yet Political Economy recognizes and deals with facts 
as they are ; and one most important fact is the existence 
of a very large class in this and a still larger in most 
other countries, who are distinguished (however inac- 
curately) as the Laboring Class, in that they live by sell- 
ing their labor for wages, instead of applying it to pro- 
duction on their own account. True, the lawyer, the 
doctor, and even the clergyman, may be said to work 
for wages ; but these are not included in the popular 
conception of the Laboring Class, and I take things as 
I find them. 

The Laboring Class, living from hand to moiith, on 
the earnings or recompense of their daily eff'orts, want 
steady work and good wages, — the wages anyhow ; the 
work for the sake of the wages. They have a keen eye 
to their generic social or class interest ; wherein they 
evince their kinship to the entire race sprung from Adam. 
They do not, as a class, believe it the chief end of man 
to render Shirtings or Sugar inordinately cheap ; they 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS INTEREST. 16L 

believe it more important that the maker shall be well 
fed, well clad, well lodged, well developed, and well 
taught. Every spontaneous, instinctive movement of 
this class looks to fair payment for honest, useful effort 
first • cheapness of product — if such cheapness be com- 
patible with the primary requisite — afterward. And, 
while narrow views, selfish greed, and short-sighted ra- 
pacity, are manifest in some of the organized movements 
of this as of other classes, I believe the general result of 
its organizations and its eftbrts has been conducive to the 
permanent moral elevation and physical well-being of 
the race. 

The Laboring Class, previously voiceless and power- 
less, has risen to political importance by reason of the 
American and French Revolutions and their legitimate 
consequences, and now finds itself appealed to by rival 
parties, pretensions, policies, philosophies, to arbitrate 
between th m, with special reference to its own class 
interest. The Economic conti'oversy, with others, thus 
appeals, through the rival disputants, to this rising 
power, as follows : — - 

" Laborers ! " say in substance the Free-Traders, "we 
propose to benefit you by reducing the cost of everything 
everywhere to the lowest sum for which it can possibly 
be afforded. This involves the reduction in general of 
your money wages ; but the lesser sum will buy more 
than the larger which it supersedes, because of the re- 
sulting cheapness of whatever you may buy or need. It 
involves further your deprivation, in some cases, of the 
employment j'ou now possess and live by ; but its natu- 
ral effect being to increase consumption by cheapening 
cost, it must, in its general operation, create more work 
than it supersedes ; so that you will, on the whole, 
have more work than now, while your wages, even if re- 
duced in nominal amount, will buy more than those you 



162 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

at present receive will now do : hence, you will be gain- 
ers on both sides : so regard your own interest, and vote 
with us." 

That it may be certainly known that I do not misap- 
prehend or misstate the argument I here condense, I cite 
the words of J. R. McCulloch, ^ one of the most renowned 
doctors of the Free Trade school, who says : — 

" Admitting, however, that the total abolition of the pro- 
hibitive system might force a few thousand workmen to 
abandon their present occupations, it is material to observe 
tliat equivalent new ones would in consequence be opened to 
receive them ; and that the total aggregate demand for their 
services luould not in any degree he diminished. Suppose that, 
under a system of Free Trade, we imported a part of the silks 
and linens we now manufacture at home, it is quite clear, in- 
asmuch as neither the French nor Germans would send us 
their commodities gratis, that we should have to give them 
an equal amount of British commodities in exchange ; so that 
such of our artificers as had been engaged in the silk and 
linen manufactures, and were thrown out of them, would in 
future obtain employment in the production of the articles 
that must be exported as equivalents to the foreigner. We 
may, by giving additional freedom to commerce, change the 
species of labor in demand, but we cannot lessen its quantity." 

This view, in substance, is taken by all the Free Trade 
economists who consider the case of the Laboring Class 
at all. Its radical vice, in my conception, is its con- 
founding a man with a mere machine, like a steam-engine 
or spinning-jenny, which does with equal and indifferent 
facility whatever work is adapted to its capacities, and 
is simply set aside when no longer wanted, to await a 
fresh demand for its services, neither consuming nor suf- 
fering in the interim. But a man — even the rudest 
and humblest — is quite other and more than a machine. 
He has daily wants, needs, that cannot be postponed nor 

1 Principles of Political Economy, Chap. V. p. 155. 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS INTEREST. 163 

ignored ; he is deteriorated by idleness, as a mere ma- 
chine is not ; he has often a wife and children to be sub- 
sisted, and a home to be broken up and abandoned when 
the failure of employment compels a change of vocation. 
The coolness with which McCulloch and his school speak 
of depriving a man of the work which he has devoted 
years to mastering and has now at his fingers' ends, and 
setting him adrift, to pick up something else whereof he 
knows nothing, and in which he must naturally prove 
clumsy and inefficient, proves them singularly ill informed 
in the premises, or callous to the moans of wide-spread 
hmnan misery. 

But I dispute the assumption that the multitudes 
thus thrown out of employment by the prostration and 
ruin of one pursuit or department of industry would, as 
a necessary consequence, even " in future," as McCulloch 
vaguely asserts, find work in the new or greatly expanded 
pursuits, with whose products payment must be made 
for the imported fabrics whereby that domestic pursuit 
or vocation was crushed out. And, on this point, I cite, 
in refutation of McCulloch's theory, the testimony of an 
equally thorough Fi'ee-Trader, the late Dr. Bowring, who, 
in setting before Parliament the misery of the hand-loom 
weavers of India, whose industry had been crushed out 
by the spinning-jennies and power-looms of Great Britain, 
says : — 

" I hold, Sir, in my hand the correspondence which has 
taken place between the Governor-General of India and the 
East India Company on the subject of the Dacca hand-loom 
weavers. It is a melancholy story of misery, so far as they 
are concerned, and as striking an evidence of the wonderful 
progress of manufacturing industry in this country. Some 
years ago, the East India Company annually received of the 
produce of the looms of India to tlie amount of from six to 
eight millions of pieces of -cotton goods. The demand grad- 
ually fell to somewhat more than one million, and has now 



164 POLITICAL E(JO>;OMY. 

nearly ceased altogether. In 1800, the United States took 
from India nearly eight hundred thousand pieces of cottons ; 
in 1830, not four thousand. In 1800, one million of pieces 
were shipped to Portugal; in 1830, only twenty thousand. 
Terrible are the accounts of the wretchedness of the poor 
India weavers, reduced to absolute starvation. And what 
was the sole cause ? The presence of the cheaper English 
manufacture, — the production by the power-loom of the 
article which these unhappy Hindoos had been used for ages 
to make by their unimproved . and hand-directed shuttles. 
Sir, it was impossible that they should go on weaving what 
no one would wear or buy. Numbers of them died of hun- 
ger ; the remainder were, for the most part, transferred to 
other occupations, principally agricultural. Not to have 
changed their trade was inevitable starvation. And at this 
moment. Sir, that Dacca district is supplied with yarn and 
cotton cloth from the power-looms of England. The lan- 
guage of the Governor-G-eneral is : ' European skill and 
machmery have superseded the produce of India. The Court 
declare that they are at last obliged to abandon the only re- 
maining portion of the trade in cotton manufacture, in both 
Bengal and Madras, because, through the intervention of 
power-looms, the British goods have a decided advantage in 
quality and price. Cotton piece-goods, for so many ages the 
staple manufacture of India, seem thus forever lost. The 
Dacca muslins, celebrated over the whole world for their 
beauty and fineness, are also annihilated from the same cause. 
And the present suffering to numerous classes in India is 
scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce.' " 

Here you see McCulloch's conditions of recompense in 
fiall activity: the British power-loom fabrics unquestion- 
ably cheaper than those they supplanted ; the lapse of 
years to. give time for Labor to adapt itself to the new 
conditions ; while a patient, docile, diligent people, never 
striking, nor rioting, nor rebelling, ask only opportunity 
of earning somehow, by some kind of industrj', the few 
cents per day that insure the satisfaction of their hum- 
ble wants. What do they experience 1 Death by hun- 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS INTEREST. 165 

ger, " numbers " of them, though willing to work at any- 
thing that will give them daily bread. And even the 
poor satisfaction of suffering for the good of others is 
denied them ; for the calamity is by no means confined 
to the class directly affected, the hand-loom weavers, but 
" the present suffering, to numerous classes in India, is 
scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce." 

Is not this demonstration ] Where was a dictum ever 
brought to the test of practical experiment if not here"? 

II. Manufactures requiring greater intelligence, rarer 
skill, more delicate manipulation, than Agriculture, it is 
inevitable that the recompense of Labor therein should 
be proportionally higher. Even though an equality 
should be maintained in the lowest grades of service, the 
comparative value of skill, experience, ability, is far 
greater in Manufactures, and must be paid for accord- 
ingly. Suppose one hundred young men, just of age, 
engage to-day in Agriculture, and alike number in Manu- 
factures, at the rate of one dollar each per day, and all 
persist withenergy, diligence, sobriety, and average ability, 
for the next ten years. You will now find that a large 
portion of the artisans have risen to responsible positions, 
yielding them from $ 500 to $ 2,500 each per annum ; 
while the farm-hands, though also paid according to their 
increased efficiency, will not be earning nor receiving so 
much. I know no civilized country wherein the average 
wages of mechanics and manufacturers is not considera- 
bly higher than that of agricultural laborers ; and I insist 
that my countrymen should have their fair proportion 
of the better paid work. 

That Labor is a commodity, like Cheese or Chocolate, 
and, like them, must be sold for what it will fetch, if sold 
at all, is constantly insisted on by the economists I com- 
bat, as though it were an axiom of indisputable soixnd- 
ness and pertinence ; but I do not thus regard it. That, 



166 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

within narrow limits, and for certain restricted uses, it 
affirms a fact, I readily admit. The man who has labor 
to sell, and little else, while he needs food, clothing, 
shelter, and other comforts, which he cannot seasonably 
create by his own direct efforts, must sell that labor for 
the most it will bring, even though that should be far 
less than he considers it worth. But, in the contempla- 
tion of a generous, far-seeing statesmanship, the laborer 
is not a mere implement or machine, but a citizen, a 
pillar of the State, the present or prospective head of a 
family, the parent of future citizens and voters. A grave 
public interest demands that the recompense of his daily 
toil should be sufficient not merely to keep the breath of 
life in his body and to maintain his capacity to work, but 
that it should enable him, with diligence and frugality, 
to keep his children about him during the years of their 
immaturity, clothe them decently, and educate them for 
usefulness and for the intelligent and conscientious dis- 
charge of the duties of citizens and electors. So much, 
the State needs ; so much, it should, for its own sake, 
endeavor to secure. If we could undersell the world in 
Iron or Cloth by means which kept their producers igno- 
rant, ill fed, socially depressed, and morally degraded, we 
could not afford to accept a commercial or industrial ad- 
vantage on such terms. Cheap Shoes and Hats are de- 
sirable ; but not at the cost of generations of shivering, 
famishing, illiterate shoemakers and hatters. 

Hence, I regard with apprehension the problem now 
challenging our attention of Chinese and Japanese Labor. 
That I profoundly dissent from the line of argument by 
which its prohibition is usually upheld, need hardly be 
stated. But, if millions of " coolies " are to be thrust 
upon us merely because their labor is cheap, — are to 
remain among us uneducated, unenfranchised, unassimi- 
lated foreigners and strangers, to whom our responsibility 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS INTEREST. 167 

ends with the payment of their stipulated wages, — ihen 
I hold that their cheap labor will prove in the end aearer 
than any other, because obtained by the sacrifice of those 
vital principles on which this republic was founded, and 
lacking which it must cease to be a beacon and a bless- 
ing to mankind. 

III. Manufactures, by proffering a diversity of em- 
ployments, and by bringing markets to the doors of the 
farmers, increase the average recompense of agi-icultural 
labor. This proposition, intrinsically probable, is sus- 
tained by myriads of facts. 

In the years of my earliest distinct recollections (1816 - 
20), there were a very few cotton-mills in Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island, but not enough to affect the general 
recompense of labor, and none at all within a day's ride 
of my home in southern New Hampshire. What is now 
Lowell was then a sterile, partially wooded tract, where 
a few fishermen had their cabins and dried their nets ; 
there was one store, but no factory, where now is Nashua, 
N. H. ; while a rickety, old, lop-sided bridge over the 
Merrimac, closely approached by a pitch-pine forest, oc- 
cupied the site of what is now the manufacturing city of 
Manchester, N. H. Lawrence, Mass., was not even con- 
ceived till at least twenty years afterward ; but Lowell, 
the pioneer, was laid out soon after 1820. In 1818, I 
knew an efficient, fliithfnl, capable man to hire out to 
work through the haying and harvest season in Bedford, 
N. H., for half a bushel of com per day ; lodging in his 
own house, but boarding with his employer. An Ameri- 
can young woman, vigorous, capable, and respected, did 
housework for that year for fifty cents per week and her 
board ; whereas just such labor would now command there 
three dollars per week and board, from twenty eager com- 
petitors. I am confident that, though British goods were 
then sold remarkably cheap, most fabrics required for 
female apparel were dearer then than they now are. 



168 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

In Vermont, for the five years 1821 — 25 inclusive, the 
price of a man's labor, except during the Summer har- 
vest, was regularly fifty cents per day, and even that very 
seldom payable in money. Food was then much cheapel 
than now, so that the fifty cents bought nearly as much 
bread and meat as the price of a day's work now does ; 
but of cloth, sugar, and store-goods generally, it would 
hardly buy half so much. 

I state these facts, not to prove labor ill paid then, or 
too well paid now, but to show that the greater diversifi- 
cation of our industry secured by Protection has decided- 
ly improved the average condition of our Laboring Class, 
whose wages will be found lowest wherever agriculture 
is most exclusively pursued. If the Cotton grown in 
Georgia or Alabama were henceforth to be spun and 
woven on her soil, it would not be possible to resist a 
general and very decided enhancement of the average 
recompense of her labor. The manufacturers would be 
no more generous than the farmers or planters now are : 
they would pay higher wages because they must ; and 
the farmers, with more remunerative markets brought to 
their doors, could not help doing likewise. 

IV. All over the civilized world. Hired Labor, finding 
its food gTow dearer by reason of tlie recent deluge of 
gold from California and Australia, is struggling to 
achieve or to maintain a corresponding augmentation of 
wages. This movement is naturally resisted by those 
who must pay the wages ; and their most potent argu- 
ment runs thus : "I cannot pay four shillings per day 
for labor in England, when I must sell my product in 
free competition with that of French rivals who pay but 
three, and Belgian who pay but two shillings." Thas 
.the reduction or abrogation of Duties on Imports is 
made to justify resistance to reasonable alike with unr 
reasonable demands for an increase of wages ; every em- 



THE LABORING CLASS — ITS INTEREST. 169^ 

ployer looking to the lowest sum anywhere paid as the 
standard which he cannot afford to exceed, and making 
a reduction anywhere his ground for demanding a cori'e- 
sponding reduction in his concern. The helplessness of 
the Laboring Class in one country compeUing them to 
submit to a reduction in deference to the master's plea, 
" I cannot else retain tliis or that foreign market," that 
reduction is made the excuse for a corresponding de- 
mand in another country, and that in another, till the 
vicious circle is complete. Free Trade in effect sets the 
Laboring Class of different countries to bidding against 
and underworking eaih other for each other's markets, 
as well as for those of other countries wherein they meet 
as competitors on equal terms. Contemplating this 
ruinous struggle, Carlyle ^ forcibly, manfully says : — 

" The Continental people, it would seem, are importing our 
machinery, beginning to spin cotton, and manufacture for 
themselves, to cut us out of this market, and then out of 
that. Sad news, indeed ; but irremediable : by no means the 
saddest news. The saddest news is that we should find our 
National Existence, as I sometimes hear it said, depend on 
selhng manufactured cotton at a farthing an ell clieaper 
than any other People. A most narrow stand for a great 
nation to base itself on ! A stand which, with all the Corn- 
Law Abrogations conceivable, I do not think will be capable 
of enduring." 

That the existence of a nation should never be per- 
mitted to depend on its ability to sell Sheeting or Calico 
a farthing an ell cheaper than other nations can make it, 
seems as clear to me as to Carlyle ; hnt I do not rest 
there. I insist that a nation whose resources are fully 
developed, and its industry brought to the highest state 
of efficiency, ought to be in better business than that 
of underworking and underselling the comparatively im- 

1 Past and Present. 



170 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

mature, feeble, struggling industries of younger and less 
civilized peoples ; that it should rather seek to teach, to 
encourage, and to develop the arts of peace among those 
peoples, than by ruthless and unequal competition to 
strike them down and crush them out. I cannot regard 
the antagonist theory and policy commended b}^ the Frcc- 
Traders as in full accord with the requirements of the 
Golden Rula 

In my conception, the true and ultimate relation cf 
the Laboring Class of one country to that of another — 
of all others — is not that of imderworking rivals, seek- 
ing to take the bread from the mouths of each other's 
children, but that of generous,' fraternal cooperators for 
the attainment of the highest good for each and all. If 
it were practicable, at my discretion, through invention, 
machinery, the aggregation of capital, talent, experience, 
and skill, for the artisans of my country to undersell 
and run out the artisans of all other countries, so that 
all manufactures should be gradually transferred to and 
thenceforth prosecuted only on our soil, I would not 
speak the word that would insure such transfer. I be- 
lieve that the true interest of all peoples requires the 
successful, enduring prosecution of the various useful 
arts by each ; so that the genius, talent, capacity, of 
the entire race shall be constantly incited to invent ma- 
chinery and improve processes which shall enure to the 
substantial ajid permanent benefit of the entire family 
of Man. 



THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 171 

XIII. 

THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 

In my contemplation of our general theme, I do not, 
with many others, divide the community into two di- 
verse, sharply discriminated classes, antagonized as Pro- 
ducers and Consumers respectively. In my conception, 
all who are of any account are both Producers and Con- 
sumers, with substantially identical interests, suffering 
by each other's misfortunes and prospering through each 
other's prosperity. I was once a laborer for wages ; I 
now pay wages rather than receive them ; yet I cannot 
realize that it is less my interest now than it formerly 
was that a fair day's work should command a fair day's 
wages. For, since I live by making newspapers, for 
which a wide, capacious market is indispensable, I know 
that a reduction of the great body of our people to a 
pecuniary condition akin to that of the coolies of east- 
ern Asia, or even that of the peasantry of Europe, 
would preclude their buying, to any considerable extent, 
newspapers, or books, or any literary wares whatever ; so 
that my loss, by the extensive cheapening of Hired La- 
bor, Avould decidedly overbalance my gain. I can better 
afford to pay fair, living wages for the labor I need than 
to obtain it far cheaper at the cost of restricting the 
market for my products to the comparatively small class 
who are able to live on their inherited or accumulated 
wealth. And my case is sulistantially that of all who 
live by selling the products of their industry to satisfy 
the wants of others, and thus to minister to their own. 
It may seem, indeed, that those who grow food, or who 



172 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

produce any other of the first necessaries of hfe, are ex. 
empt from the operation of this law ; but in fact thej are 
not. Their market is enlarged, the prices they receive are 
signally enhanced, by the diversion of multitudes, who 
would naturally have been their competitors, into pursuits 
which render them lifelong customers instead. The 
inevitable enhancement of the price commanded by 
farms in a township or county, consequent upon the 
establishment and vigorous prosecution of manufactures 
or mining therein, is a familiar exemplification of this 
law. A new industry will often give value even to 
boulders or rugged ledges of granite, which had pre-- 
viously been not merely worthless, but a positive draw^ 
back, subtracting from the value of the lands on which 
they were found. Thus, a forest, which the owner was 
slowly, patiently destroying by axe and fire, at a cost of 
twenty to thirty dollars per acre, has been suddenly 
transformed into a considerable property, by the erection 
of a furnace or factory, the construction of a raih'oad, 
ilQ its vicinity. Thus, many substances, once deemed 
worthless, have become valuable through the mere pro- 
gress of industry, knowledge, civilization ; as many more, 
doubtless, will do as mankind grows wiser. Thus, mines 
of Coal and of Minerals, over which savages have 
roamed heedlessly for centuries, are discovered and 
worked by their civilized successors, proving almost in- 
exhaustible sources of comfort, power, and wealth. 

There be those who say : " Let us continue to draw oui 
Metals, as well as our Wares and Fabrics, mainly from 
Europe, because Labor and Capital are so cheap there 
that the products of British mines can be laid as rails 
across our richest beds of Coal and Iron Ore far cheaper 
than we can make thence the rails we need." It seems 
to me that the cheapness here asserted is fallacious, mis- 
taken, illusory. Admit that fewer dollars will buy from 



THE IXTEEEST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 173 

Great Britain the rails required, they will cost, in my 
view, far more of om* Labor than would similar rails 
made from our own ore on our own soil. For every ton 
of rails made here tends to increase the capacity, skill, 
experience, whereby our people are enabled to make 
better and cheaper rails through all future time, and to 
grade the ways over which oiu- diverse materials ap- 
proach and mingle with each other. The cheapness of 
British Iron is in good part the result of British skill 
and knowledge evinced in the commingling of diverse 
ores so as to produce a metal of far greater value than 
could have been obtained from either of those ores 
smelted by itself. Great Britain has for years been so 
thoroughly gridironed and checkered by railroads and 
canals that such commingling is far more easily and 
cheaply effected on her soil than elsewhere ; but we are 
profiting by her example and following swiftly in her 
footsteps. It is but a few years since the vast deposits 
of choice Iron Ore on the eastern shore of Lake Superior 
were reached by a railroad ; and already they are exten- 
sively drawn upon to produce Iron not only in Michigan 
•(near Detroit), but in Illinois (at Chicago), and for steel- 
making at Pittsburg, until at length, Indiana — which 
boasts the possession of 7,500 square miles of better 
Coal for Iron-making than is found clsewhei'e — has 
been prompted to erect gr-eat furnaces near Greencastle, 
at Indianapolis, and perhaps in other localities, where 
her numerous railroads may cheaply concentrate the 
Coal of her southwestern counties and the Ore of Lake 
Superior, beside the Limestone which extensively under- 
lies her soil, and thus produce (she calculates) a very 
superior Pig Iron at a veiy moderate cost, though the 
Ore has travelled hiuidreds of miles to meet her Coal 
rather more than half-way. So St. Louis is making con- 
dderable Pig Iron ; drawing by rail to herself the Coal 



174 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of southern Illinois from the southeast, to smelt the Ore 
of the Iron Mountain from the southwest ; and she ex- 
pects to make much more, and to better advantage, when 
she shall have completed her bridge over the Mississippi, 
"o that the Coal may be run by rail from the mines di- 
rectly to her furnaces. Thus, on every side we are per- 
fecting the conditions whereby Iron can be cheapened, 
as we could not perfect them in the absence of a market 
for American Iron. The railroad whereby Ore is brought 
from Lake Superior would not have been built in the 
absence of a demand for that Ore ; and so with that 
which is destined to bring the Iron Mountain piecemeal 
to St. Louis. We shall thus erelong have cheaper 
American Iron without reducing our makers to European 
wages, if we have but the foresight and patience to seek 
it aright, and not repeat the blunder of 1846, when a 
Protective Tariff was broken down under which we were 
supplying ourselves with American Bar at less than $ 60 
per ton, while, after a few years of Revenue Tariff, we 
were buying British bars at $80 per ton.^ 

Yet I would not induce a belief that Iron will ever be 
made in this country for so few dollars per ton in the aver- 
age as will buy it from Europe while the disparity in the 
ordinary wages of labor shall remain so great as at present. 
A ton of Iron embodies so many days' labor in quarry- 
ing or digging, smelting, puddling, (fee, &c., and very 
little else than Labor directly applied to its production ; 
and all know that this labor is very much cheaper in 
Europe than here. Take all the work done in producing a 
thousand tons of Iron in this coimtiy, and its average cost 
will fall little short of two dollars in gold for each day's 
faithful labor ; while Mr. Abi'am S. Hewitt ^ gives statis- 

1 Address of John L. Hayes to the National Association of Knit 
Goods' Maniifactiirers, New York, May 1, 1867. 

2 U. S. Commissioner to the last Universal Exposition of the Pro- 
dxicts of the World's Industry, at Paris, 1867. 



THE INTLREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 175 

ties of the wages of Ijabor employed in Iron-making in 
Europe, showing that in England its average cost ranges 
n-om 3 s. Cd. to 4 s., or 87^ cents to $ 1 (gold) per day : in 
France at about 70 cents, and in Belgium at less than 60 
cents per day. But England has the advantage of her 
Continental rivals in the greater abundance and accessi- 
bility of her Ores and Coal ; so that she makes Iron, in 
the main, cheaper than they can ; the average cost of 
merchant bars being stated by Mr. Hewitt as follows : — 

In England, £ G 10 s. or $ 32^ (gold) per ton. 
In Belgium, £ 7 or $ 35 (gold) per ton. 

In France, £ 8 or $ 40 (gold) per ton. 

[It should be noted that women and children are exten- 
sively employed in mining operations in Great Britain, at pri- 
ces far below the cost of similar labor performed by men, and 
that the product is thereby considerably cheapened.] 

Now, I believe that improvements and economies are 
soon to be realized which will considerably reduce the 
cost and price of Iron ; but, as these will be universally 
diffused, I do not suppose we shall make Iron so cheaply 
here as it can be made in Europe, so long as labor there 
costs less than half the price of similar labor here. A 
ton of Pig Iron embodying a good fortnight's work, — 
part of it skilled, or high-priced labor, — on either con- 
tinent, I judge that it must continue to cost more where 
such labor is worth two dollars per day than where it 
averages from si.xty cents to one dollar per day. 

Better authorities dissent from this conclusion. The 
Hon. Daniel J. Morrell, M. C.,^ in his testimony before 
the U. S. Revenue Commission, 1866, says : — 

" If British cheap labor were out of the way for twenty- 
five years, we could so attract their skilled labor, and so 
nearly rival them in the advantages of capital, that we should 

1 Superintendent of the j^eat rail-prodvicing " Cambria Iron Com- 
pany" : Johnstown, Penn. 



1*76 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

need no Protection. Indeed, I would engage to export rails 
to the British dominions at a profit, if we could have our own 
market for that time. I feel certain that such a measure 
would not impair, but would greatly increase, the revenue. 
The fully employed and well-rewarded labor of the land 
would, in a thousand ways, be able to contribute to the in- 
come of the Grovernment, and more than make up for the loss 

of duties on imported Iron 

" Any branch of American manufacture that has received 
Protection, adequate to secure it the home market, in the 
past, has soon demonstrated its superiority of product, and 
has been enabled to compete, on equal terms, with foreign 
manufactures." 

This seems to me too sweeping, though the rule indi- 
cated will generally hold good. A recent British report 
(from Birmingham) seems more discriminating and accu- 
rate, in maintaining that, wherever ingenuity and the 
substitution of machinery or steam-power for manual 
labor can be made to tell decisively, there American in- 
telligence and capacity assert their preeminence ; but 
where (as in Iron) a product costs so many blows with 
sledge or hammer, — in other words, so much muscular 
exertion, — there, the relative cheapness of European 
labor makes itself decisively felt. I incline, therefore, 
to concur generally in the reasoning on this point of Mr, 
Hewitt,^ who says : — 

" It is obvious that the abnormal rates for labor which we 
have been considering cannot prevail in any one branch of 
industry alone, but must extend to all ; as labor, like water, 
must seek a general level in each community governed by the 
same laws, and subjected to the same influences. All articles 
of commerce are, therefore, produced below their normal 
cost, — that is, the cost which would be possible if the funda- 
mental laws of humanity were not violated in the employment 

1 Paris Universnl Exposition., 1*^67. Reports of the Uniterl States 
Coirmiissioners. The Prorluftion of Iron and Steel in its Economic 
and Social Relations, by Abram S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner. 



THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 177 

of women and children, and the payment of a rate of wages 
to the common laborer inadequate for the proper support and 
culture of the family. In those commodities which require 
in the United States more human labor for their production 
than is necessary in Europe, where labor is so inadequately 
paid, we have perhaps no other interest than a general con- 
cern in the welfare of the human race ; but, so far as Iron is 
concerned, from the fact that we can produce it with as little 
consumption of human labor as any other nation in the world, 
the case is different, because there is no absolute loss of wealth, 
and no misapplied power in its production ; and the only 
question to be discussed is, whether it shall be taken out of 
the general category of manufactures not so favorably placed 
as to the cost of production, and by positive legislation placed 
in the same condition as it would have occupied with refer- 
ence to foreign competition, if the rate of wages in other 
countries had never been reduced below their normal stand- 
ard. We have seen that the cost of making Iron in Eng- 
land, Belgium, and France, at the present time, varies from 
£6 10 s. to £ 8 per ton, and £ 1 additional suffices to pay its 
cost of transportation to the seaboard of the United States. 
At these ports, American Iron cannot possibly be delivered 
at a less cost than $ 60 in gold, against $ 40 in gold for the 
foreign article, and the entire difference consists in the higher 
wages, and not the larger quantity of labor, required for its pro- 
duction in the United States, where the physical, mental, and 
moral condition of the working classes occupy a totally dif- 
ferent standard from their European confreres, and where the 
wages cannot be reduced without violating our sense of the 
just demands of human nature. At the same time, it is to be 
observed that the business is so far overdone in Europe that 
no profit can be realized by the capitalist except in special 
cases, for which adequate reasons can be given. The actual 
remedy for this over-production would be to withdraw the 
women and children, as we do, from this class of industry, 
whereby the production must be reduced, the rate of wages 
raised, the cost and the selling price increased, capital become 
remunerative, and the ability to procure iron, made cheap 
by its adulteration with the violated laws of humanity, be 
8* L 



178 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

forever extinguished. To what result the general discussion 
which this subject is now receiving in Europe wiU lead, it is 
not easy to decide ; but it is a curious phenomenon to listen 
in France to the loud complaints, which are made against the 
competition of Belgium in the manufacture of iron, and, 
stranger still, in England to the same complaint, and the broad 
declaration that it wiU not be possible to do anything for the 
education and elevation of the working classes without expos- 
ing their manufacturers to ruin in consequence of the compe- 
tition with the worse-paid and worse-fed labor of Belgium. 
The truth is that the whole system is false, and now, when 
pressed by the energy, enterprise, and competition, of the age 
to its legitimate results, Humanity is in rebellion, and there is 
a general cry from all classes — laborers, employers, philan- 
thropists, philosophers, and statesmen, ahke — for rehef The 
necessity for this relief becomes painfully apparent when the 
poor-law returns made in England are carefully examined, 
from which it is evident that there is an army of paupers 
pressing upon the occupations of the common laborer, and 
striving to push him over the almost insensible line which 
divides these two classes from each other. It is not possible 
that the' laborer should receive more than bare subsistence- 
wages, and there can be no relief for his patient suffering, so 
long as there are thousands who, unable to earn any wages at 
all, stand ready to fill up every gap in the ranks of industry ; 
and to the honest laborer himself, standing on the edge of 
this line, over which he is liable at any moment to be forced 
into the ranks of pauperism, the anxiety and miserable state 
of uncertainty for himself and his family must be fatal to all 
rational happiness, and is well calculated to drive him into 
vicious indulgences and temporary excesses whenever a tran- 
sient opportunity is afforded, as a momentary relief from a 
condition of hopeless misery." 

If there be those who hold that American Labor 
should be reduced to compete on eqnal terms with such 
as Mr. Hewitt here depicts, I decidedly disagree with 
them. But I do not less emphatically differ from the 
conclusion of those who say, " Since European Labor 



THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 179 

is so much cheaper than oiirs, let us profit by that cheap- 
ness to obtain our Metals, Wares and Fabrics, of Eui'ojie 
at lower prices than we must pay for them if made on 
our own soil." I hold those low prices to be : — 

1. Illusory (as I have hitherto shown), in that the 
Foreign products cost more in our labor or its fruits, 
though less in money, than the home-made. If we 
analyze the process of paying for a quantity of Home 
Manufactures, we find that a large part of the payment 
is made in articles which would have no value, or 
very little, if our workshops were still mainly in 
Eiu'ope. 

2. Capricious, in that the prices we pay for European 
products which we rival here are far less than they 
would be in the absence of such rivalry. 

3. Pernicious, in that our prefeiTing the products of 
underpaid to those of fairly recompensed Labor tends to 
reduce the compensation of Labor and the status of the 
Laboring Class in oior country and throughout the 
world ; and 

4. Unpatriotic, in that the inventions and labor-saving 
processes which the ingenuity, capacity and intelligence, 
of our countrymen are constantly making in every 
field of useful effort they occupy, will be lost to our 
country and to mankind, if we sun-ender that field to 
the unfair rivalry of cheap European Labor. 

" But you Protectionists," we are told, " are con- 
tinually crying ' More ! More ! ' You are like the horse- 
leech's daughters stigmatized by the prophet, who cry 
* Give ! Give ! ' and are never satisfied." Let us see : — 

I have before me a tabular exhibit of the duties 
levied on the most important articles by the several 
Tariffs passed by the friends of Protection from 181G 
inclusive. Here are the rates levied by them respec- 
tively on Iron : — 



180 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 





Tariff of Do. 
1816. 1824. 


Do. 

1828. 


Do. 

1832. 


1842. 


Do 

18t>t 


Pig, per ton. 
Rolled Bar, 
Nails, per lb. 


30 37 

3 cts. 5 cts. 


$124 

30 
5 cts. 


$m 

30^ 

5 cts. 


$9 

25 

4 cts. 


$9 
25 
24 cts. 



Hence it will be seen that not only are the average 
duties on Iron lower this day than they were fixed by 
the Lowndes-Calhoun Tariff of 1816, but Pig Iron — 
the lowest and rudest condition of the metal — that 
which is simply rugged Human Labor in a concrete 
form — is admitted at as low a duty under the present 
Tariff as under that of 1816, or under any of those sincft 
passed by the friends of Protection. The effort of the 
Free-Traders to confuse the public mind wuth regard to 
these facts by diluting the present duty into its Green- 
back equivalent, so as to call it twelve dollars or over 
per ton, is contemptible. The duty is levied and com- 
puted in precisely the same currency (coin) to-day as 
under all former Tariffs ; the nine-dollar duty per ton 
paid to-day on imported Pig Iron is exactly the same 
per ton as that imposed by Mr. Lowndes's Tariff of 
1816; while other duties on Iron are lower. No other 
item in the present Tariff has been more fiercely or 
frequently assailed than the duty on Pig Iron ; and 
there is a wide-spread impression that it is higher now 
than ever before ; yet above are the facts. And, while 
the duty is lower to-day than under our former Tariffs, 
such has been the progress and improvement of our 
Iron industry that we now import but one ton of Pig 
Iron for every dozen to twenty tons that we make at 
home, — proving that American Pig is very decidedly 
cheaper than British with the duty added. And Com- 
missioner Wells's last Report, in which the duty on Pig 
Iron is assailed as exorbitant, pernicious, destructive, 
shows that our annual product of Pig Iron is largely 



THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 181 

and constantly increasing, while that of our European 
rivals is stationary or declining. I quote his tabular 
exhibit entire, though it is obvious that his estimate of 
our production for 1868^ is far below the truth : — 

ANNUAL PRODUCT OP AMERICAN PIG IRON FROM '63 TO '68. 



Tears. 


Tons. 


Annual Increase. 


1863 


947,604 




1864 


1,135,497 


19.82 per cent. 


1866 


. 1,351,143 


9.50 


1867 


1,447,771 


7.16 " 


1868 


(estimated) 1,550,000 


7.06 « 



For the seven years from 1860 (when the production 
was 913,770 tons) to 1867, the average annual increase 
has been 8.35 per cent. This increase is in excess of 
the present average annual increase of the Pig Iron 
product of Great Britain, which, since 1863, has been as 
follows : — 

Years. Tons. Increase. 

1863 . . . 4,510,040 

1864 . . 4,767,951 5.71 per cent. 

1865 . . . 4,819,254 1.08 " 

DecreMe. 

1866 . . 4,523,897 6.50 per cent. 

In France, the annual product of Pig Iron was, in 
1866, 1,253,100 tons, and in 1867, 1,142,800 tons: 
showing a decline of 110,300 tons. 

In Austria, the official returns of the Iron trade show 
a diminution of 42 per cent, in 1866 as compared with 
1860, and of 60 per cent, as compared with 1862. 

I will now add some statistics of our Iron Imports, 
compiled from the last Animal Report of Francis A. 

1 " We find that the grand total production of Iron from the ore in 
1868 was 1,640,600 tons." — Annual Report of the American Iron and 
Steel Association for 1868. 



182 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Walker,^ showing the amount and character of those 
Imports for the last calendar year (1868) inclusive : — 

Description. Duty. Declared Value. 

Pig Iron, . . $9 per ton, . . $1,740,124 
Castings, . . part 30 per ct. and part specific, 28,801 
Bar Iron, . . * 1 cent per lb. . . 2,766,067 

Boiler Iron, . . 1^ cts. per lb. . . . 72,097 
Band, Hoop and Scroll, l| @ If cts. per lb. . 341,765 

Railroad bars or rails, $ 14 per ton, . . . 5,348,352 

SheeU.on, . . ] ^raiMl'mfl'lb. i ^«*>391 

Old and Scrap, . $ 8 per ton, . . . 2,039,293 

Hardware, . . 3^ cts. per lb. . . 201,894 

Anchors, cables, and ^ „, , ,, okoiqi 

chains of all kinds, pi cts. per lb. . . 259,181 

Machinery, . . 3 cts. per lb. . . 304,126 

Muskets, pistols, rifles, ) „_ , „^„ p.p.„ 

•, .■ ' > 35 per ct. . . . 229,550 

and sporting guns, ) ^ 

Steel ingots, sheets, bars, ) „, ^ , , ,, o chk »7nn 

J ^- ' ^ 2i @ 4 cts. per lb. . 2,695,700 

and wire, . . ) ^^ ^ ' ' 

Cutlery, . . 45 per ct 1,530,550 

Files, . . . 30 p. c, and 6 @ 10c. pr. lb. 635,916 

Saws arid tools, . av. 45 per ct. . 92,247 

Mar^ufadures of Iror, ) 3^ ^^^^^ _ _ _ .^^^ 2 

and Steel not specijiea, ) ^ 

Total, $23,807,451 

[Note. — I should have given the quantities imported as well as the 
value, but the official returns are avowedly imperfect ] 

I have made out the above table — stating the duties 
on the several descriptions as accurately as I may (since 
Mr. Walker's classification is different from that followed 
in the Tariff) — in order to elucidate the ingenuity and 
facility wherewith importers thread their way through 
the most stringent and carefully devised schedule of 
duties. We have been over forty years trying to frame 

1 Deputy Special Commissioner of Revenue. 



THE INTEREST Of CONSUMERS IRON. 183 

Tariff provisions that would protect our struggling in- 
dustries, and have given more attention to Iron manufac- 
tures than to any other ; yet note how enormous is the 
importation of Old or Scrap Iron, becaiise the duty on 
that is comparatively low ; while " Manufactures not 
specified," being charged an Ad Valorem duty, are swelled 
to the most ungainly proportions. Railroad Iron being 
admitted at a comparatively low rate, everything that 
can be made to look like a rail seeks admission under 
this head : so the three descriptions specified reach these 
staggering dimensions : — 

Railroad Bars or Rails, .... $5,348,352 

Old or Scrap Iron, 2,039,293 

Manufactures not specified, . . . 4,757,892 

Total, $12,145,537 

All other Iron and Steel and Manufactures 

thereof, $ 11,651,914 

The three kinds above specified exceeding 

all the rest, by the sum of . . . $ 493,623 

The careless public, looking at the high rates levied 
on Hardware, Machinery, &c., says, " Sm-ely, these must 
be sufficient " ; but the importer avoids these, so far as 
possible, by changing the character or disguising the ap- 
pearance of his wares, so that they may pass under some 
designation which is subjected to a lower impost ; and 
thus the Protection afforded is not what Congress de- 
signed, but far less than that. The longer a tariff' con- 
tinues, the more weak spots are found, the more holes 
are picked in it, until at last, through the influence of 
successive evasions, constructions, decisions, its very 
father could not discern its original features in the trans- 
formed bantling that has quietly taken its place. Eveiy 
decision, whether by a functionary or a jury, that makes 
in favor of cheap importation, affords a footing for new 
exertions of mercantile ingenuity and legal subtlety to 



184 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

undermine and subvert the hated barrier, — thousands 
holding (or, at least, asserting) that all tariffs are at war 
with natural right and public interest, and so should be 
nullified so far as possible. Doubtless, the duties on 
Iron, Steel, and their Manufactures, being so largely 
specific, are more fully collected than those on Textile 
Fabrics, &c., are or could be ; but they still fall in fact far 
below what a simple perusal of the Tariff" would indicate. 

That ours is destined to be a great Iron-producing as 
well as Iron-working country, every American instinc- 
tively believes. He cannot admit that God has filled our 
soil with such enormous deposits of Ore, Coal, and Lime- 
stone, to be forever left there useless and unvalued, 
while British rails are laid across them in every direc- 
tion, and British engines career thereon, drawing cargoes 
of British bars and British manufactures for the use of 
the dwellers on the tributaries of the Mississippi, the 
Colorado, and the San Joaquin. Thus, when Mr. Hodg- 
skin, an intelligent and candid Englishman residing in 
this city, recently made an address to a Free Trade meet- 
ing in Brooklyn, wherein he argued that we should buy 
our Iron from Europe because her low-priced labor ena- 
bled her to produce it much cheaper than we could, our 
Free Trade journals at once shrank from that position ; 
choosing to insist that American Iron was dear only be- 
cause the present Tai'iff enabled our Iron-masters to 
charge an exorbitant price for it ! 

Such unworthy shifts cannot abide the test of time 
and discilssion. The price of Iron, as of anything else, 
is measured with general accuracy by the cost of produ- 
cing it ; whenever the profit of such production is large, 
thousands are incited thereby to embark in it ; and this 
tendency cannot be checked until the profit falls to (or 
below) the average of iJiat realized in other investments. 



THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS — IRON. 185 

We shall ultimately produce Iron much cheaper thaiv 
now, through the improvement and perfection of. the 
processes by which we make it ; and to such improve- 
ment it is indispensable that our Iron industry shall be 
not dead but alive. The unsteadiness of our policy in 
the past has sadly retarded our progi-ess. Capitalists 
hesitate to invest the vast sums required to produce 
steel rails (for instance) at a moderate cost, with the 
sword of Damocles suspended over their heads by a 
formidable party intent on the overthrow of Protection ; 
but let the public voice be unmistakably heard on the 
right side, and millions of capital will flow into the va- 
rious departments of our Iron industr}^, insuring econo- 
mies unattainable while our policy shall remain unstable, 
precarious, capricious. Were it this day fixed and pro- 
claimed that no reduction of our Iron imposts would be 
made during the next ten years, mines would be opened 
and furnaces erected wherever Ore and Coal exist in 
proximity or may be cheaply brought together ; rolling- 
mills and forges would speedily follow in their train ; 
invention would be stimulated and improvements per- 
fected, until we should soon have cheaper Iron through 
the cheapening of the processes, the increased efiiciency 
of the labor, eraplo^^ed to produce it. That cheapening 
would not be fully indicated by the prices ruling in New 
York ; for that is the point where, while imported Iron 
is cheapest, American Iron is necessarily dearer than at 
the points of production, hundreds of miles inland, where 
it is nearer and woi'th more to the great body of our 
consumers than it would be in this city. A genuine 
cheapness is only attained by means consistent with the 
just recompense, intellectual enlightenment, and moral 
elevation, of the Laboring Class : we shall secure the for- 
mer without sacrificing the latter through the judicious, 
ample, steadfast Protection of American Industry. 



186 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XIV. 
PROTECTION ILLUSTEATED — SUGAR. 

Sugar has become the commonest and most indispen- 
sable luxury of civilized man. Consumed and enjoyed 
at almost every meal by the rich and great, the poor are 
rarely too poor to buy and use it : in some crude, low- 
form, it forms a part of the daily diet even of public 
paupers and imprisoned felons. The wildest, rudest 
savage, who never heard of its existence till yesterday, 
finds it delicious, and gorges it with avidity ; he wiU give 
a buffalo-robe or a beaver-skin for a cupful of it rather 
than forego its enjoyment. The liking for Tobacco is 
artificial, acquired, partial ; but that which finds its grati- 
fication in saccharine flavor is natural, spontaneous, and 
almost, if not quite, universal. 

Yet such gratification was obtained by our European 
ancestors, down to a comparatively recent period, only 
through the use of Honey. The Sugar Maple was un- 
known to them prior to the discovery of America, its 
native land ; the Cane was stiU confined to China, Japan, 
India, and their adjuncts ; whence it was brought west- 
ward by the conquering Saracens, and planted, not far 
from the era of the Norman Conquest, in the isles of the 
Mediterranean when subjected to their sway ; whence it 
was afterward diffused by them into Southern Italy and 
even Spain ; yet it was not till after the discovery of 
America by Columbus that Sugar — whether the Cane 
was found already growing in the tropical isles we call 
West Indies, or soon carried thither by the Spaniards, 
and there found a most congenial soil — became one of 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR. 187 

the great staples of International Commerce, and was 
welcomed to the tables of the merchant and banker as 
well as to those of the noble and king. 

And, though the fact that Sugar existed in and was 
chemically extractable from the Beet, Carrot, and other 
edible roots, was discovered by the German chemist 
Margraff in 1 747, no practical benefit was realized from 
that discovery until after the close of the last century. 
Dr. Johnson, in his great Dictionary of the English lan- 
guage [1 755], defines as follows : — 

Sugar : 1. The native salt of the Sugar Cane^ obtained by 
the expression and evaporation of its juice; 2. Anything 
proverbially sweet; 3. A chymical dry crystallization. 

It is plain that, broad and even loose as are the second- 
ary definitions, the great lexicogi-apher had no clear con- 
ception of the extent to which Sugar exists in the vege- 
table products of the Temperate as well as in those of 
the Tropical Zone. Ere Noah Webster completed the 
compilation of his still greater Dictionary, three-fourths 
of a century later, the progress of human knowledge had 
been such as enabled him to give this far more accurate 
definition : — 

Sugar : 1. A sweet, crystalline substance, obtained from 
certain vegetable products, as the Sugar-Cane, Maple, Beet, 
Sorghum, and the Uke ; 2. That which resembles Sugar in taste, 
appearance, or the like, as Sugar of Lead [that is, acetate of 
Lead], so called because it ha« a close resemblance to Sugar in 
appearance, and tastes sweet ; 3. Figuratively, compliment or 
flattery employed to disguise or render acceptable something 
obnoxious. 

The advance in human knowledge and efficiency indi- 
cated by a comparison of Webster's with Johnson's pri- 
mary definition of Sugar, is the fruit of half a century 
of determined, strinoent Protection. 



188 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Margraff, an eminent Prussian chemist, gave to the 
world his discovery of Sugar in the Beet and kindred 
roots, in a paper read before the Berlin Academy of Sci- 
ence in 1747, as aforesaid, wherein he claimed for it great 
importance as the basis of a new and beneficent expan- 
sion of European industry. No practical results were 
thence deduced, however, for a generation. Margraff 
was in 1773 succeeded in his efforts by Achard, another 
Prussian chemist, who patiently prosecuted his experi- 
ments until he was ready to engage in practical Beet 
culture and manufacture, which he did in 1789, at Cauls- 
dorff, near Berlin ; he having ere this attracted the atten- 
tion and patronage of that determined Protectionist, 
Frederick the Great, by whose aid he commenced opera- 
tions looking to the production of Beet Sugar. Had 
Frederick lived twenty years longer, the successful pro- 
duction of Beet Sugar would probably have been achieved 
earlier than it was by nearly a quarter of a century ; but 
he died in 1786, when "another king arose, who knew 
not Joseph " ; and Achard was constrained by lack of 
means to suspend his operations for several years. 

He resumed them, however, before the close of the 
century, and with such success that 'he was encouraged 
to publish an account of his operations in 1797, followed 
by a letter describing his processes, which appeared in 
the Annates de Chimie (Paris) in 1799; wherein he in- 
sisted that Sugar might be produced from the Beet to 
any desired extent, with present advantage and ultimate 
profit. 

The seed fell on good ground. The victories of Rod- 
ney, Hood, Nelson, and their compeers had nearly con- 
verted the high seas into British lakes. In the great 
wars which followed the French Revolution of 1789, the 
flag of France, triumphant on land, had already been 
nearly driven from the oceans, and was soon to be wholly 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR. 189 

excluded therefrom. Tropical produce was already scarce 
and dear in the French Republic ; Trafalgar and British 
" Orders in Council " were soon to render them still more 
so. France, while giving law to the Continent, revolted 
at the thought of sweetening her coffee only by the gra- 
cious permission of the British oligarchy. The famous 
Institute was incited to scrutinize the representations 
of Achard, and a commission of its most capable mem- 
bers, appointed by it to examine his processes, verify his 
statements, and report upon his discoveries and their 
merits. 

The experiments thus impelled did not justify the 
sanguine expectations which Achard's letter had excited. 
Though the juice of the Beet contains, on the average, 
ten per cent, of Sugar, but one or two per cent, could 
(on a large scale) be extracted by the best machinery 
and processes yet invented. The Commission reported 
that Beet Sugar, (crude,) which Achard had reported as 
costing but sixty centimes per kilogramme (about five 
and a half cents per pound), could not be produced for 
less than one franc eighty centimes per kilogramme 
(equal to sixteen cents per pound). Two Beet Sugar 
factories, established near Paris, soon failed, entailing 
heavy loss on the proprietors, and casting deep discredit 
on the new industry. Dark days succeeded ; for the 
Sugar business prospered no better in Germany, its 
cradle, than in France. For a time, France, rigorously 
excluded by British cruisers from her own colonies, and 
from all places beyond the seas, either did without 
Sugar or paid over fifty cents per pound for it. Resolute 
attempts were made to extract Sugar, or a semi-liquid 
equivalent, from the Grape ; and chemists experimented 
and sought for Sugar in every direction, without achiev- 
ing any noteworthy success. 

But France had by this time a ruler not easily dis- 



100 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

scouraged, an embodiment of energy and forecast, whom 
our modern Free-Traders have not yet mustered the 
hardihood to claim as of their school ; though they will 
probably attain to it by degrees, as they have already 
done in the case of Henry Clay. This man — Napoleon 
Bonaparte by name — had resolved that the production 
of Beet Sugar should not be given up as a failure. He 
encouraged chemists, agriculturists, and manufacturers, 
to resume their efforts and persist in them ; and he was 
heeded. In 1810, M. Deyeux submitted to the Academy 
of Sciences a report, in which he insisted that the Beet 
was France's best hope for deliverance from the prevail- 
ing scarcity and deamess of Sugar ; and that report pro- 
duced an effect still held in grateful remembrance. 

Two loaves of excellent home-made Beet Sugar hav- 
ing been presented to the Emperor, he gave the subject 
of its production as much thought and study as he 
could, amid his incessant and gigantic cares, and de- 
creed^ that 32,000 hectares (nearly 80,000 acres) of 
land should be devoted to the culture of the Beet, and 
a considerable sum was confided to the Minister of 
Agriculture expressly to encourage the production of 
Beet Sugar. Coincident instructions were despatched to 
the prefects of the several departments into which 
France is divided, and a subsequent decree^ established 
five schools of Chemistry in aid of the manufacture of 
Beet Sugar ; while four imperial factories were provided, 
calculated to produce, from the crop of 1812, 2,000,000 
kilogrammes (nearly 5,000,000 pounds) of Beet Sugar. 

The tremendous struggle inaugurated by Napoleon's 
ill-starred expedition to Moscow necessarily distracted 
attention from industrial problems, and threatened to 
engulf the new manufacture entirely. " At the moment," 
says M. de Dombasle, one of the pioneers in this in- 

1 March 25, 1811. 2 January 15, 1812. 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR. 191 

dustry, " when I was preparing my ground for the pro- 
duction of Beets, our armies were in Moscow ; when I 
was engaged in making Sugar from those Beets, om* 
factory served as the quarters of a pulk of Cossacks." 
Others had similar experiences : and the efforts, alarms, 
and disasters, attending Napoleon's final struggles for 
power on the soil of France, gave a succession of shocks 
to the new industry which a vigorous constitution was 
needed to withstand. 

Napoleon fell; but not till he had afforded a fresh 
demonstration of the truth that " Peace hath her 
victories not less renowned than War," or, if less re- 
nowned, certainly more substantial and enduring. He 
found time before his overthrow to visit the refinery at 
Passy near Paris, where the best Sugar was in process 
of preparation for table use ; and next day's Moriiteur 
announced that " A great revolution in the Commerce 
of France has been accomplished," — an averment 
possibly prematiu-e, but essentially true. The fields of 
Marengo, Austerlitz, Wagram, and Borodino, no longer 
acknowledge the sway of France ; the name of Na- 
poleon naturally recalls memories of the Berezina, of 
Leipsic, Waterloo, and St. Helena, rather than of 
his brilliant but barren victories ; even the imposing 
Arch of Triumph and the lofty column in the Place 
Vendome awaken thoughts of the vanity of ambition 
and the fleeting illusions of power and fame ; but a 
million of French acres devoted in ever-widening area 
to the profitable cultivation of Beets, and hundreds of 
factories annually producing more than Six Hundred 
Millions of pounds of cheap and excellent Beet Sugar, 
remain to attest to the present and to future genera- 
tions the genius and true glory of Napoleon I. 

Beet Sugar is no longer an experiment. Its success 
is now beyond question or cavil. In France, as in 



192 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Germany, it no longer needs nor seeks Protection. 
Lands worth four hundred dollars per acre can be no 
otherwise so profitably employed as in the production 
of Beets for Sugar, though that Sugar is now afforded 
in Paris and throughout France cheaper than Cane 
Sugar of equal excellence ever was. The expediency 
of the home production of Sugar has passed out of the 
region of controversy so far as France is concerned. 
But there was a time — there are those hving who well 
remember it — when nothing was represented and re- 
garded as more preposterous than the notion that Sugar 
might be profitably made from Beets, when Providence 
(so it was urged) had decreed that the Cane alone should 
supply it. Growing pine-apples in Greenland, natural- 
izing the reindeer in Cuba, extracting sunbeams from 
cucumbers, and all the kindred similes which Free- 
Traders deem so apt and conclusive, were hurled at the 
heads of Frenchmen in pursuit of Sugar under diifi- 
culties ; the British press fairly frothed over with lam- 
poons and libels aimed at the frog-eaters and their wild- 
goose chase for sweets; and epigram was piled on epi^- 
gram, whereof the point was ever substantially this : — 

" Says John Bull to Bony, ' While I use the Cane, 
Tou are welcome each year to get Beet.' " 

Even down to the comparatively recent period (1837) 
at which Dr. Wayland gave to the public his *' Elements 
of Political Economy," Free-Traders still pointed to the 
French Protection of her Sugar-makers as an illustrative 
example of the folly of Protection. As casting a strong 
side-light on the whole subject, I quote all that the 
Doctor (condensing from The Edinburgh Review) has to 
say ^ on this subject, viz. : — 

The Sugar Trade. — To encourage her colonies, France 
lays a duty of fifty francs per quintal on all foreign sugars. 

1 Elements of Political Economy, by Dr. Wayland, p. 159. 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR, 193 

This has uicreased the quantity made at home and at her 
islands. So far, it has succeeded ; but, 

2. The difference between the duty on foreign and the duty 
on her own sugars amounts to 32,945,000 francs. This is 
the bounty paid to the sugar-growers of Martinique and at 
home. 

3. The quantity of sugar consumed is probably less by one- 
third than it otherwise would be. England, with half the 
number of inhabitants, consumes two and a half times as 
much sugar as France. 

4. But it is said that by this means beet-root sugar will yet 
supply France at the ordinary price. It must, however, take 
twenty years under the present system in order to do this. 
The present Protection costs £ 1,400,000 per annum. Sup- 
pose this to continue for twenty years, it will amount to 
£28,000,000 sterling; the interest of which at iSve per 
cent, will buy, at two and a half pence per pound,* 126,000,000 
pounds of sugar per annum, or nearly the whole annual 
amount of sugar now consumed in France. 

Here is the familiar Free Trade assumption, that all 

1 Dr. Wayland is all wrong in his facts. The actual average price 
of Sugar in bond (that is, duty unpaid) in London in that year, 1837, was 
not 2.^ d. per pound, as he asserts, but <£ 1 14 s. 7 d. per cwt., equal to 
^y'-q d. per pound. Then, in regard to the consumption of Sugar in 
France and England, I find that, in 1837, the quantity consumed in 
France was 249.058,832 pounds, and in England 442,838,720 pounds, 
which is not double, — not 75 per cent, greater. The duty in France 
on Sugar from her own colonies was 37 s. 6 d. ; in England, the average 
duty was 24 s. In reference to the price, the present Emperor of the 
French, writing in 1842 on the Sugar Question, said: — 

" The price of Sugar, which, uuder the Empire, was 9 francs per kilo- 
gramme, has since fallen to 1 franc 10 centimes; and though then pro- 
tected and encouraged, it has now to support a tax of 27 francs per 100 
kilogrammes; or, together, a difference, to the detriment of the manu- 
facturers, of 817 francs per 100 kilogrammes " 

Deducting from 110 francs, the price of 100 kilogrammes of Sugar at 
1 franc 10 centimes per pound, the duty of 27 francs, leaves 83 francs as 
the price of the Sugar exclusive of duty. According to Reed's Hl-itoiy 
of Sugar, the price of Sugar in bond in London was then 36 s. 1 1 d. per 
cwt., or 86 francs 9 centimes per 100 kilogrammes. So that, on\y Jive 
years later than when Dr. Wayland wrote, Beet Sugar was cheaper in 
France than Cane Sugar in its cheapest European market ! 
9 M 



194 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the Sugar, foreign and domestic, consumed in France, 
was enhanced in price by the full amount of the duty 
charged on the importation of foreign Sugar, — an as- 
sumption refuted by a million facts. Because there was 
a duty of fifty francs per quintal charged on Sugar 
imported from other than French colonies, it is assumed 
that all the Sugar consumed in France is enhanced in 
price to that extent ; and not merely is, but will con- 
tinue to be, up to the moment when the steady growth 
of Home production shall have entirely excluded foreign 
Sugar ! The French are thus figured as taxing them- 
selves, during the ensuing twenty j^ears, no less than 
£28,000,000, or nearly $ 140,000,000, — very nearly 
what their supply of Sugar would cost them under Free 
Trade ! Such is the Free Trade calculation ; now let us 
look at the facts. 

The Sugar Industry of France — which (like our own 
equally immature Manufactures) had received a serious 
set-back from the sudden cessation of hostilities conse- 
quent on the downfall of Napoleon, opening our markets 
to the products of British fabrication and the French to 
a corresponding influx of tropical or Cane Sugar — soon 
recovered from the blow, and, under the guardianship of 
steadfast Protection, had attained such development and 
strength that, in the very year (1837) of Dr. Wayland's 
publication of his ^' Elements," it was, for the first time, 
subjected to an impost or excise of fifteen francs per one 
hundred kilogrammes, or a little over a cent and a half 
per pound. (We presume that even Free-Traders will 
not contend that this impost was designed to favor the 
domestic beet-growers or sugar-maniifacturers.) The 
first effect of this impost was to close one hundred and 
sixty-six sugar factories, extirpating the Beet Industry 
from seventeen of the forty or fifty Departments in 
which it had taken root. But the Sugar industry had 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR. 195 

ere this acquired a vitality and vigor which enabled it to 
recover from this shock, and soon resume its onward 
march. The impost was raised from time to time, as 
the growth and prosperity of the business were judged 
so decided as to enable it to bear them, until all 
the Protection afforded by duties on Imports was 
fully countervailed by the excise on home production ; 
and, since 1860, it may be fairly claimed that Beet Sugar 
has been produced in France more cheaply than it could 
be imported in the absence of any tariff. The present 
rates of duty collected in France on Sugar are as fol- 
lows : — 

Raw Sugar, under No. 13 Dutch 
Standard. 
From French West Indies and Island Equivalent m 

P T-,. . , ,,1 , • -if 1 Per 100 American gold 

oi Keunion and settlements m Mada- kilo. net. per lOO lbs. 

gascar 37 fr. $ 3.36 

From other French Colonies . . 37 3.36 

From other countries out of Europe . 42 3.82 

From Europe or European entrepots, 

Colonial sugar .... 44 4.00 

Raw Sugar, above No. 13 to No. 20, 

inclusive. 
From French West Indies and Island 

of Reunion, and settlements in Mad- 
agascar ..... 
From other French Colonies 
From other countries out of Europe 
From Europe or European entrepots, 

Colonial sugar ..... 46 4.18 

White Sugar, powdered, above No. 20 

Dutch Standard. 
From French West Indies and Island 

of Reunion 40 3.63 

From other French colonies prohibited. 

White Powdered Sugar from all other 
countries is prohibited. 



39 


3.54 


44 


4.00 


44 


4.00 



44 


4.00 


45 


4.09 


47 


4.27 



196 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Refined Sugar. 

From French West Indies and Island 

of Eeunion 42 fr. $ 3.82 

From other French colonies prohibited. 

From England and Belgium, with cer- 
tificate of origin .... 55 5.00 
Refined Sugar from elsewhere, not 

above mentioned, prohibited. 
Beet- Root Sugar. 

G-rown and manufactured in France, 

below No. 13 Dutch Standard . . 42 3.82 

Grown and manufactured in France, 
from No. 13 to No. 20 

Powdered, white, above No. 20 

Refined 

The production, meantime, has steadily increased, un- 
til there was made from the excellent Beet crop of 1865 
no less than 274,000,000 kilogrammes (or nearly 678, 
287,040 pounds) of Sugar, or more than five times the 
quantity which Dr. Wayland estimated, less than thirty 
years before, as equivalent to the total consumption 
of France ; and, though the yield has since been less 
abundant than in that exceptionally bounteous year, yet 
the product of the ensuing year (1866 - 67) was officially 
returned at 216,000,000 kilogrammes, or 533,191,280 
pounds, which is equal to about fourteen pounds per an- 
num for each man, woman, and child, living in the coun- 
try, not including the quantity of Cane Sugar still im- 
ported from the French tropical colonies, and disregard- 
ing also the large product of Molasses in the Beet-Sugar 
factories, which considerably exceeds 100,000 tons per 
annum. It may be confidently asserted that no Conti- 
nental people who mainly procure their Sugar from the 
tropics, under no matter how low duties, ever consumed 
half so much Sugar, though the means of the French 
peasantry are limited and their habits notoriously frugal. 



PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED — SUGAR. 



197 



We have seen that Sugar, in the daj^s when Protection 
was inaugurated, sold in Paris at fifty cents per pound, 
— a consequence, not of Protective duties, but of British 
blockades and captures. That price was of course tem- 
porary, and the fall after the return of peace was signal 
and rapid. The following are the wholesale prices of No. 
12 raw Sugar in Paris, exclusive of the impost levied 
thereon by the Government, so far as I have been able 
to obtain them : ^ — 



Year. 


Price per lb. 


Year. 


Price 


per lb 


1816 . 


12^ 


cts. 


1854 . 


^ 8 


cts. 


1817 . 


lli^o 




1855 . 


. 6 


" 


1818 . 


12tV 




1856 . 


• 6^ 


a 


1819 . 


HtV 




1857 . 


• 7^ 


u 


1820 . 


10^ 




1858 . 


• 5^ 


u 


1821 . 


10^ 




1859 . 


• 6J7 


a 


1822 . 


h% 




1860 . 


• 6,V 


it 


1823 . 


BA 




1861 . 


. 5^ 


a 


1824 . 


10^ 




1862 . 


• ^'^I'rr 


u 


1825 . 


9 




1863 . 


• 5>; 


u 


1826 . 


IOt'o 




1864 . 


• h\ 


u 


1827 . 


9^ 




1865 . 


. 5 


u 


1828 . 


9A 




1866 . 


. 5 


a 



[Note. — There was a gradual fall from 1828 to 1854 ; but 
I have no precise data.'] 

Here we see that Protection, pure and simple, created 
on the soil of France a perfectly novel industry, so far 
as that country or its material is regarded, and reduced 
the price of its product, by gradual and persistent ap- 
proaches, to a point below that at which tropical sugar 

1 From " Beet-Root Sno;ar and the Cultivation of the Beet." By 
E B. Grant. Boston: Lee and Shepard. 1866. 

2 The following extract from a letter quoted by Mr. W. Digby Sey- 
mour gives the relative prices of Beet and Colonial Sugars in Paris in 
1851, which shows that Beet Sugar commanded the highest price of 
each quality : — 

" In order to enable you to determine the commercial value of in- 



198 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

had ever been or could now be afforded in France, were 
all tariffs abolished and trade rendered absolutely free. 

The Protection afforded to home-grown or Beet Sugar 
over Colonial or Cane Sugar ranged from about eight 
cents per pound in 1816 down to one to three cents from 
1840 to 1860. Since 1860, the duty (as will be seen) is 
rather lower on Colonial than on Beet Sugar. In other 
words. Protection, having done its perfect work, is super- 
seded, as no longer necessary. 

digenous (beet) sugar, I copy the price-current of sugars last week. 
Porto Rico sugars, which bring a higher price in the London market 
than sugars from the Antilles, shall serve as a base. 

PKICE PEK 100 KILOGRAMMES (220 LBS.) DUTY PAID. 

Nov. 7, 1851. 

Paris. Equivalent per 

Sugar. Francs. 100 Ib.s. Am. gold. 

Porto Rico, good Fourths, . . .118® 119 $ 10.72 (® $ 10.81 

Martinique and Guadaloupe, good Fourths, 120 " 121 10.90 " 11.00 

Beet, good Fourths, 131 " 11.90 " 

Martinique and Guadaloupe, fair Fourths, 123 " 124 11.18" 11.27 

Beet, fair Fourths, 133" 11.27" 

Martinique and Guadaloupe, fine Fourths, 125 " 126 11.18" 11.27 

Beet, fine Fourths, 125 " 11.18 " 

Beet, refined, first quality, . . 140 " 144 12.72 " 13.09 

Beet, refined, second quality, . . . 14fi " 178 13.27" 16.18 
" How to Employ Capital in Western Ireland. By William Digby 
Seymour." p. 282. 



THE BEET SUGAR LNDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 199 



XV. 

rfi£ UAXMONY OF INTERESTS — THE SUGAR 
INDUSTRY OF FRANCE INVIGORATING 
OTHER INDUSTRIES — BEET SUGAR ON 
ITS TRIOMPHAL MARCH. 

An important question remains to be considered : 
What has been the effect of this remarkable develop- 
ment of Sugar industry upon other departments of the 
industry of France, more especially upon Agriculture, 
and upon the recompense of Labor ] As this is a vital 
point, I choose to quote at length the official Report on 
the Condition of the Sugar Industry of France, made 
by M. B. Dureau at the last great Exposition of the 
World's Industry (Paris, 1667), as follows :^ — 

" The extent of the Beet Culture, which was not, ten 
years since, more than 128,440 acres, may to-day be estimated 
at about 271,700 acres, or about one-twentieth of the ara- 
ble soil of France, which exceeds 54,249,640 acres. These 
figures confront impressions and statements which imply that 
the development of Beet culture had been effected at the 
expense of that of cereals, and that to make Sugar exposed 
us to a scarcity of Wheat. But facts have demonstrated that 
the lands devoted to Beet may be doubled or trebled, and still 
sufficient remain in cereals for the sustenance of man. It has 
been demonstrated, even, by incontestable facts, that, instead 
of tending to reduce the space devoted to cereals^ it remark- 
ably augments it. One example will suffice to prove it: — 

" In 1854, the area devoted to Wheat in the arrondisse- 
ment of Valenciennes was 36,582 acres ; in 1867, it attained 

1 Universal Exposition, Paris, 1867. Report on the Condition of the 
Sugar Industry. 



200 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the figure of 39,537 acres, although the cultivation of the 
Beet, which had previously an extent of 17,205 acres, in- 
creased to 22,326 acres. What, then, are the products which 
the Beet supplants ? They are barley, the colza, the natural 
and artificial grasses, the woods, and at other times the fallow 
ground, Which it long since entirely superseded in the North, 
and, which it causes to disappear in all districts where it is in- 
troduced. In addition, the product per acre of Wheat is 
nowhere greater than in the Sugar districts. We can judge, 
from that same arrondissement of Valenciennes, which had 
yielded 30^ bushels per acre of wheat in 1861, — already 
out of proportion with the rest of France, — gave in 1866 a 
return as high as 34 bushels per acre. 

" The number of cows and sheep has likevsase signally in- 
creased. Thus, the districts which most extensively cultivate 
Beet are those which furnish the most Wheat and Meat, and 
are therefore the largest contributors to the public alimenta- 
tion. The arrondissements of Lille and Valenciennes, with 
their excellent culture, sometimes attain the figure of 31 to 
35 tons per acre of Beets. Other regions return a much 
lower figure ; and we believe that we cannot possibly esti- 
mate it, on the whole, in France, at higher than 15 to 18 tons 
per acre. This return, it will be understood, is susceptible of 
great variations, according to the circumstances, more or less 
favorable, of the weather. 

" The yield of Beet [at first hardly two per cent.] is now 
from five to six per cent, of Sugar, and the average product 
of Beet Sugar is estimated at about 1,800 pounds per acre. 

" Beet, after its juice is expressed, gives a residuum of 
great value as a nutritive substance. It may be estimated 
that 660 pounds of this residuum, fermented by being left for 
some time in pits, is equivalent in nutrition to 220 pounds of 
Hay. A working ox is well fed with a daily ration of 88 of 
pulp and 4 to 6^ pounds of hay. If we calculate that the 
pulpy residuum is one-fifth in weight of the Beet, and that it 
will consequently furnish a total quantity of 990,000 tons, 
we shall find that it can support (exclusive of all other 
forage) during a year 55,000 beeves of from 1,202 to 1,322 
pounds, or 555,000 sheep, and thus produce 1,322,400 pounds 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 201 

of meat. Moreover, these cattle, fed with pulp, will furnish 
sufficient manure to fertilize each year about 30,000 acres. 

" Beet is, we see, a plant that improves the soil when its cul- 
ture is accompanied, as it should be, by the feeding of cattle, 
which its residuum will so largely contribute to sustain. 

" The good effect is, however, not limited to this ; for, 
with tliis plant, nothing need be lost. The leaves and stalks 
which are left on the soil are likewise fertilizing ; which one 
soon perceives on noting the vigor of the Wheat growing 
Avhere these leaves, rich in potash, have been more abun- 
dantly left to decay. 

" If eaten by sheep, the result is the same. The Beet- 
roots coming to the factory carry with them from five to six 
per cent, of earth, often a great deal more : this earth, col- 
lected at the washing of the roots, along with the debris of 
filaments and roots, makes a fertilizing matter, which is ap- 
plied as a compost by mixing it with muck from the yard, 
cinders from the boilers, and other residuum. 

" The woi'king of the juice requires a great deal of chalk, 
which forms, with the abundant scums thrown off during 
clarification, a mineral and nitrogenous fertilizer of the first 
order, highly prized by growers : for the scums retain part of 
the albumen of the Beet and some salts in combination. 
We make of this fertihzer perhaps about 220,000 tons per 
season. 

" The fabrication of Sugar employs some animal black, the 
residuum of which (we can scarcely estimate it at less than 
495,600 to 660,800 bushels per year) goes to fertilize the granite 
lands of Brittany and furnish the calcareous element which they 
require. This is not all. The manufacture of the Sugar leaves 
an uncrystallizable residuum, namely, Molasses, which may be 
estimated at from two and a half to three per cent, of the 
weight of the Beet. This Molasses, the total quantity of 
which amounts to 132,240 tons per annum, is worked up in 
special establishments, and, after giving off, by distillation, a 
volume equal to one-fourth of its weight of pure Alcohol, 
leaves, in the proportion of ten to twelve per cent., a coarse 
residuum known as Beet Saline, which contains all the salts 
borrowed from the soil by the plant j none of the elements 
9* 



202 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of which ^cape being utilized, owing to the marvello"? 
system adopted in its treatment. The season of 1865 - 66, ac- 
cording to official figures, has produced 6,765,962 gallons of 
Molasses Alcohol. 

"As to the SaUnes, — composed of carbonate of potash 
and of soda, of chloride of potassium, and foreign matters, — 
their production ought to amount to from 13,224 tons to 
16,530 tons. 

LABOE. 

" It is useful to know what part Labor plays in the fabri- 
cation of Sugar. This part is considerable. Let us, therefore, 
state it briefly. Ten years since, it was estimated that the 
manufacture of Beet Sugar (we do not speak of the agricul- 
tural branch) employed 40,000 persons, of both sexes and all 
ages. This number has not augmented in proportion to the 
production, because the application of machinery, and notably 
of some special machinery, has permitted the realization of a 
certain economy of hands. We may, nevertheless, estimate 
that each factory employs from 180 to 200 persons, of whom 
three-fiftlis are men, one-fifth women, and one-fifth children 
of both sexes. The average wages of the men is 60 cents 
(gold) per day; that of the women, 25 cents; and that of the 
children, 20 cents. We can estimate at about $ 10,000 per 
factory, the wages of each season of 120 days. This gives, 
for the 441 factories in France, a sum exceeding $4,400,000, 
to be divided among about 85,000 workers. 

" As to the cultivation of the Beet itself, we may calculate 
for all the hand-labor required from $ 6.80 to $ 7.20 per 
acre, which forms another sum of from $2,000,000 to 
$ 2,200,000. 

" This employment, created by the Beet Sugar industry, 
is as such the more interesting because it is purely rural, and 
takes place in the Winter, — that is to say, at the time when 
agricultural labor is least required. It is thus that tliis useful 
industry comes to the aid of Agriculture, favoring it in aU 
its branches, and unquestionably, by the influence which the 
extra wages we have mentioned have in counteracting, 
among the rural population, the false attractions of the cities. 
In this view, it rendei-s incomparable service." 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 203 

I do not suppose that any corroboration of the testi- 
mony above given is needed ; but the following note on 
the Beet industry of Belgium by an English observer — 
the correspondent of The London Morning Chronicle, — 
as quoted in Mr. W. Digby Seymour's work entitled, 
" How to employ capital in Western Ireland" (1851) — 
affords a striking confirmation of the accuracy of Mr. 
Dureau"s conclusion : — 

" When Beet-root forms a prominent part of the cultiva- 
tion, the proportion devoted to it is about one-third of the 
whole farm. Take a farm of ninety hectares (222^^g^jf acres), 
and there would be thirty hectares (74 Jq^^ acres) of Beet-root, 
forty (OS^oV acres) of Wheat, five or six (12//^ or 14j8J2- 
acres) of Rye, and the rest in clover, carrots, potatoes, &;c. 
It is a remarkable fact that, since this plant has been so large- 
ly cultivated here (Belgium), the yield of Wheat has been as 
great as when the tuhole was devoted to the latter , — so excel- 
lent a preparation of the soil is Beet-root." ^ 

I have made these long extracts, because, while throw- 
ing much light on the general subject of Sugar production, 
they undesignedly illustrate and commend the beneficence 
of diversifying the pursuits and productions of a people. 
France has at length cheaper and more abundant Sugar 
than she could have had, had she not long since entered 
resolutely on the work of protecting its production on 
her own soil, and persevered therein to the end, in spite 
of the sneers and jeers of economists like Bastiat, who 
have determined not to see in Protection aught but a 
device or scheme for enriching one man or class at the 
expense of another. In their view, Protection being but 
a cloak for rapacity, the more yon protect the more Pro- 
tection is needed ; yet here is France abundantly sup- 
plied with a cheap article, naturalized on her soil by 
Protection, and thus rendered so strong and prosperous 

1 Seymour, p. 9S. 



204 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and remunerative, that it no longer needs Protection, but 
goes ahead, fearless and flourishing, without. And, so 
far from having impoverished other interests during its 
long struggle, it has aided and enriched them. The soil, 
mellowed and fertilized by the Beet, produces more 
Wheat than ever before, and the farmers are incited to 
devote more acres to that noble grain ; the residuum of 
the sugar-mills feeds more cattle than the same lands 
ever before subsisted, so that there is more meat as well 
as more bread ; while Labor finds in the sugar-factories 
employment and wages at the very season when, in their 
absence, it must go idle and often hungry, and be tempt- 
ed to drift away to the already overcrowded cities. Such 
are the obvious results of efficient, successful Protection. 
But the substantial and enduring benefits resulting 
from the early and persistent efforts of France to supply 
herself with home-made Sugar have not been restricted 
to her own people. Germany, — which preceded her in 
the outset and vied with her later exertions, — though 
for a time less conspicuous in the prosecution of this 
good work, is now nearly abreast of her. In 1840, Prus- 
sia and the States united with her in the " ZoU Verein," 
or Customs Union, had 145 Beet-Sugar factories, con- 
suming 241,486 tons of Beets per annum, and producing 
therefrom 13,445 tons of raw Sugar and 8,955 tons of 
Molasses. In 1865, her factories had increased to 300, 
consuming 2,106,000 tons of Beets, and producing there- 
from 180,000 tons of Sugar and 50,544 tons of Molasses. 
And whereas it originally reqiiired fifty tons of Beets, 
and in 1840 eighteen tons, to produce a ton of Sugar, 
successive improvements had, by 1865, enabled the 
manufacturers to obtain a ton of Sugar from less than 
tiuelve tons of Beets, ^ with more than a quarter of a ton 

1 Beet-Koot Sugar and Cultivation of the Beet- By E. B. Grant. 
Boston. 1866. 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 205 

t)f Molasses. And the ultimate limit of improvement is 
not yet reached. 

The Government, which, in 1840, was content with a 
tax of lO^o cents per ton on the Beets consumed in 
Sugar-making, had increased this impost to $ 1.23^ in 
1850, and this to $3.09 in 1858, — equal to $ 36 up to 
$43 per ton on the Sugar produced. Under this impost, 
the wholesale price of Sugar w^as about seven cents per 
pound. 

A recent Handels- Archive (Prussian, 1867) gives the 
following account of the progress of Beet Sugar industry 
since 1836 in North Germany, or rather the sphere of 
the Zoll Verein : — 

" For the first four years, no tax was laid on the article, in 
order to encourage the production ; in the fifth year, a small 
financial duty of IOj^q cents (gold) per ton of beet-roots Avas 
levied ; during the next three years, it was doubled and made 
20j3q^ cents per ton : in the following six years, it was trebled, 
and made Glj*^ cents; then came three years that it was 
doubled and raised to % 1-23 y^^ ; after which it was again 
doubled for a period of five years, when $ 2.47^ was levied ; 
and finally, for the last nine years, it was raised twenty-five 
per cent., and now pays $ 3.09 per ton. In the first four 
years, it produced no revenue ; but in 1867 it yielded no less 
than $ 8,748,942. 

" During the thirty-one years, the production of beet-root 
rose from 558,882 cwt. to 55,010,761 cwt. in 1867, and the 
quantity of raw^ sugar made from it had increased from 31,048 
cwt. to 4,437,361 cw^t. 

" In 1831, there were 122 manufactories, and at the end of 
1867 they had increased to 296, which, however, is not in 
proportion to the rise of the production ; but during the above 
period the improvements in the machinery and apparatus 
must have been very great ; for w^hereas in 1831 eighteen hun- 
dreds of beet-root were required to yield a hundred of sugar, 
twelve hundred were sufficient in 1867. From a calculation 
made of the percentage as compared with the population, it 



206 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

appears that the production of sugar at first was less than two 
ounces per head, but amounted last year to 9.79 lbs. per head 
of the population. 

" The statistics of the exports and imports of sugar for each 
year of the above-named periods, show that, while the im- 
ports of sugar in 1831 were 1,202,319 cwt., they had dwindled 
down to the insignificant quantity of 39,954 cwt. in 1867. 
At the same time, the exports had increased very nearly in 
the same though reversed ratio, as in 1831 they amounted to 
49,179, and in 1867 had risen gradually to 947,603 cwt." 

The Hon. Horace Capron, U. S. Commissioner of Agri- 
culture, upon a call moved by the Hon. S. M. CuUom in 
the House of Representatives, reported to Congress facts 
illustrating the production of Beet Sugar, whereof a part 
have heretofore been given from other sources, but there 
are others of decided interest which I state ou the Com- 
missioner's authority. He says : — 

" Without G-overnment encouragement at the outset, it 
might not now be numbered among the industries which 
bless the world. When the first Bonaparte fostered the art 
of extracting Sugar from this garden vegetable as a practical 
matter, the possibility of obtaining a good article had long 
previously been demonstrated by chemists ; it only remained 
to be shown that the manufacture could be conducted with 
profit on a large scale. His object was to exclude from hig 
empire the sugar of British colonies, the price of which was 
then four or five francs per pound. A prize of 1,000,000 
francs was offered by the French Government for the most 
successful method of obtaining a supply of indigenous Sugar. 
It was soon evident that such a supply must be furnished 
from the Beet. 

" In Poland, also, in 1812, government loans and exemption 
from conscription, in aid of the enterprise, were freely of- 
fered. In fact, the principal governments of continental 
Europe vied with each other in perfecting and extending the 
new business. 

"A manufactory of Beet Sugar was in successful operation 
in Silesia as early as 1805 ; and in France repeated experi- 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 20'/ 

ments were undertaken a few years later. Up to 1818, no 
very marked or rapid progress was made, though the business 
was constantly extending. 

" In 1839, the manufacture, already established upon a 
solid footing, embraced the operations of 268 factories in 
France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. In 1848, France 
alone had 294; Prussia 346, and Russia 425. The present 
number of factories in France (according to De Neumann) is 
449 ; many of them are far more extensive than those of 
former days, and fourteen of the number have been estab- 
lished during the past year. At the first of January, 1868, 
3,173 refineries of Beet Sugar were reported as in operation 
in Europe. 

" The total product in 1828 is stated to have been 7,000 
tons; in 1851, 180,000 tons; and in 1867, the enormous 
quantity of 663,000 tons, or 1,485,120,000 pounds, worth 
$ 100,000,000, or about seven cents per pound. 

" Sixteen years ago, France was able to manufacture half 
of her total consumption of Sugar, or 60,000 tons ; and 
Belgium, consuming 14,000 tons, imported, in 1851, but 
4,000 tons. Germany, at the same date, produced 43,000 
tons, Austria 15,000, and Russia 35,000 tons ; the latter coun- 
try also importing, at that time, 50,000 tons of Sugar in 
addition to the home product. The total manufacture of 
Europe, as stated above, has been almost quadrupled since 
that date, and cane sugar in several of those states is now 
scarcely known. 

" The amount manufactured in France during the three 
months ending November 30, 1867, was 120,553 tons, — 
18,613 more than was made in the same period of the pre- 
vious year 

" The product of Beets per acre is from fourteen to fifteen 
tons in France and Belgium. Enormous crops have occasion- 
ally been reported. The English Gardener's Chronicle con- 
tains the statement of M. de Gasparin, of 27 tons 700 pounds 
grown upon 39 perches 16 square yards, or nearly 110 tons 
per acre. He sowed the seed under glass, transplanted the 
plants in April, hoed repeatedly, and irrigated every two 
weeks 



208 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

" The large and increasing quantities of Sugar and Molas- 
ses required for consumption in this country and the amount 
of money paid for foreign labor in its production, can be ap- 
preciated by a glance at the following statement of imports 
for five years, which is in addition to a small domestic pro- 
duct of cane, maple, and other sugars, and large quantities of 
sorghum syrups ; a small amount, also, by indirect trade, is 
not included, on account of incompleteness in the official 
statement of imports. 

SUGAR. STRUP AND MOLASSES. 

Year. Pounds. Dollars. Gallons. Dollars. 

1862 557,137,529 20,357,090 25,157,280 3,427,813 

1863 518^594,861 19,082,017 31,206,986 4,732,378 

1864 632,230,247 29,660,076 33.571,230 7,256,064 

1865 608,855,989 25,248,299 43,309,003 7,471,467 

1866 977,885,449 39,595,677 47,768,348 7,227,351 

"Here is a total of $ 133,943,159, gold value, paid for for- 
eign Sugar in five years, and $ 30,115,073 for the Molasses, 
— an average of about $ 33,000,000 per year, and more than 
$ 50,000,000 in currency ; the most of which, if not all, 
should be retained at home. In view of the great success 
of the business in Europe, the American people owe to the 
world's estimate of American enterprise a determined and 
persistent effort for its establishment here. I see no reason 
to despair of its complete accomplishment." 

A Frencli periodical,^ with evident satisfaction, 
says : — 

" One of the most remarkable and interesting facts of the 
past year is the export of considerable quantities of Beet 
Sugar from France to England^ — a country that, not many 
years ago, tried to stifle the Beet Sugar industry in its 
cradle." 

It is not the aim of these essays to commend new 
branches of industry to favor, nor to insist that these 
may be pursued to greater profit than others. Our close 
proximity to the tropical isles in which the Cane grows 

1 Journal des Fabricauts de Sucre, January 4, 1866. 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 209 

with gi-eatest luxuriance, seldom needing to be replanted, 
and the strong probability that some, if not all, of those 
islands may soon choose to unite their destinies with 
our own, may seem to render questionable the wisdom 
of invigorating the prosecution of Beet culture on our 
soil with an eye to the production therefrom of Sugar. 
My end is attained if I have shown that one important 
product has been, through the aid of Protection, natural- 
ized on a continent to which it was supposed utterly un- 
suited, and in a climate tinder which its prosecution was 
deemed wholly impracticable, and that the results are 
signally conducive to the advantage, not merely of those 
engaged in that industry, but of the great body also of 
their countrymen, and to the substantial and permanent 
well-being of mankind. 

Having thus traced, by the aid of official documents, 
the history and fortunes of the Beet Sugar industry of 
France, from its origin down to our own day, I propose 
to place in contrast with the facts a Free Trade traves- 
ty of their substance and moral I quote in full the ver- 
sion of the matter given in The Free-Trader of July, 
1868, viz. : — 

"The origin of the Beet culture in France was this: 
During the Napoleonic wars, the ports of France were rigo- 
rously blockaded, and foreign trade almost annihilated, so that 
Sugar went up to $ 1.20 per pound. The French people 
were thus compelled to raise Sugar or go without it, and 
hence resorted to the Beet culture. On the restoration of 
peace, in 1814, Sugar fell to 14 cents per pound. The pro- 
tection was gone, and the consumers could get for 14 cents 
what had cost them $ 1.20. The Beet Sugar manufacturers 
began, of course, to clamor loudly for Grovernmental assist- 
ance. France had Sugar colonies of her own, — Martinique, 
Guadaloupe, Cayenne, &c. ; but, to satisfy the home Sugar- 
growers, a duty was laid by Louis XVIII. of % 80 per ton on 



210 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

colonial and $ 200 per ton on foreign Sugar. Under this 
heavy protection, the cultivation of the Beet was immensely 
extended. A povs^erful opposition v^as raised to this policy, 
and much conflicting legislation took place ; but the culture 
has continued to the present time, and the French people 
have paid so much in the extra cost of their Sugar that the 
sum total which they have lost would form a fund, the an- 
nual interest of which would supply them gratis with all the 
Sugar they will consume to the end of time ! 

" Such is the example of France, as we understand the 
matter, which Protectionists would have us imitate. To do 
this, the G-overnment must increase the present onerous 
duties vastly beyond Avhat they now are, and, if not found 
sufficient to protect such an unnatural branch of industry, 
they must be increased until they are. Such are the only 
conditions on which the culture can be sustained. As in the 
case of the Cotton manufacture, to protect which we laid at 
first duties of 25 per cent, but increased them every four 
years till they reached 50 to 100 per cent., so it must be with 
Sugar, only worse in degree, as the business is more abnormal, 
But, if the Government will only begin the work, and per- 
severe sufficiently long, there is no doubt an immense branch 
of business may be established, and at an enormous loss to 
the nation. Once begun, there can be no stopping-place. 
We have taxed the people to protect our ' infant manufac- 
tures ' for over half a century, and where are we to-day ? 
Have the infants arrived at maturity ? Can they stand 
alone ? Have they ceased to cry for Protection ? When 
the people of the West shall have invested millions in sugar- 
houses, mills, and apparatus, and yet find the business un- 
profitable as compared with wheat-growing, as they certainly 
must, the clamor for higher duties will be louder and more 
irresistible than the first demand for Protection. Once start 
any hind of business under Government assistance, and that 
assistance can never he withdrawn." 

Compare this final assertion with the facts hereto- 
fore given, including the prices at which Sugar has been 
and is sold in France, and determine on which side iff 
beneficent statesmanship, and on which selfish, narrow, 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 211 

short-sighted indifference to National growth and general 
well-being. 

I have thus, in tracing the history of Beet Sugar, and 
the industries conducive to its production, shown what 
Protection is, what it purposes, and what it does. In 
divesting that production of an exclusively tropical 
character, diffusing it over a great portion also of the 
Temperate Zone, and demonstrating its adaptation to 
every part of that zone, Protection has signally cheap- 
ened for the masses their most essential luxury, enabling 
millions to enjoy it daily who would else have rarely 
tasted it, and thus increasing the comfort and physical 
well-being of mankind. Labor more amply and uni- 
formly employed, as well as better paid, lands rendered 
more productive and therefore increased in value, a sub- 
stantial and permanent improvement in the character of 
the soil and the condition of those who cultivate it, — 
such is Protection, as demonstrated in the creation of 
the Beet Sugar industry and its firm establishment in 
Central Europe. In other words : the planting of the 
Sugar-producer by the side of the Sugar-consumer, from 
whom he was formerly separated by a distance of three 
or four thousand miles, has reduced to a tenth the cost 
at which their products were formerly exchanged, there- 
by increasing the rewards of industry and the comforts 
and enjoyments of the poor. Such being Protection as 
it is, I ask the reader to contrast it with the caricature 
which its enemies present, and which I find in one of 
the fly-sheets sown broadcast by the importers' Free 
Trade League, which has its American head-quarters in 
our City. I quote it verbatim, as follows : — 

" PROTECTION. 

" ' Protect me ! ' is the imploring cry of a comfortable, well- 
fed, well-clad personage whom, at first sight, one would hardly 



212 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

take for a "beggar. 'Protect me! I oAvn but ten thousand 
acres of land in the world. It is my all. It is full of coal ; 
but the Englishmen and Nova Scotians have got coal too, and 
they offer to sell it cheaper than the price I want. Shut out 
this foreign coal, and protect me, an American laborer.' He 
looks even less like a laborer than a beggar. 

" ' What makes coal so dear when the weather is so dread- 
ful cold ? God help us poor ! ' comes from between the chat- 
tering teeth of a toil-worn, care-worn, shivering woman, as 
she measures with stingy eye a scanty fresh suppl}?- of fuel to 
her waning fire. No cry from her to Grovernment for Pro- 
tection. No Protection to her from the greed of the strong, 
the cunning, the avaricious. ' Work for yourself. Work or 
starve. Self-help. Every one for himself. If Government 
gave bread, or clothes, or fuel, to the poor, it would demoral- 
ize them. Take better care of the pennies you earn. Lay 
them up in Summer for a wintry day.' Such are the an- 
swers she would get if she asked for Protection, — if she 
turned beggar. No chance for her to put in a replication. 
The voices of the coal-owners are mighty to drown hers. 
If she could be heard, she would say : ' How can I lay up 
my pennies when the strong arm of Government takes them 
from me, day by day, as fast as I earn them, and hands 
them over to my richer neighbors ? On every spool of 
thread I buy, Government takes from me a penny or two to 
pay over to the Woonsocket Factory Company, so that they 
may make dear thread and big dividends. On every garment 
I Avear, it takes pennies and shillings from me, wherewith to 
fill the purses of the rich men who make cloth, and stockings, 
and shawls, and who cannot be content with less than fifty 
or one hundred per cent, increase of their wealth every year, 
to pay them for making dear clothes for the American laborer. 
When I buy a stove or a pair of scissors, I must pay some of 
my hard-earned pennies to .support the wealthy iron-maker 
of Pennsylvania. I get no Protection to my labor, and I ask 
none. Let us both alone, — me and the manufacturer. As 
you let me work my humble way along as be.st I can, leave 
him to do the same. Give him no part of my earnings, and 
I am content with my little share of this world's goods.' If 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 213 

it demoralizes society for Government to give the poor food 
and clothes and fuel, is it not equcally demoralizing for Gov- 
ernment to give to the rich and the strong ? And, when it 
gives to the rich by taking from the comforts of the poor, is 
it not demoralizing society at both ends ? " — Round Table. 

Reader ! the gentlemen who contribute their thou- 
sands of dollars each to circulate such appeals as the 
above to popular ignorance and envy, expecting to make 
their tens of thousands therefrom by the sale of more 
foreign products and at higher prices, tell you that their 
views are liberal, enlightened, comprehensive, far-seeing, 
while mine are narrow, rapacious, short-sighted, partial, 
and selfish. Compare their statement just given with 
the facts concerning Sugar set forth in this and the pre- 
ceding essay, and judge impartially between us. 

If you believe that the natural relation of one man to 
another is that of antagonism, — that the prosperity of 
A involves or necessitates the bankruptcy of B, — that 
Agriculture and Manufactures are natural foes, whereof 
one must perish that the other may flourish, — then your 
proper place awaits you in the Free Trade ranks. But 
if you have a true and generous conception of the essen- 
tial Harmony of Interests, — of the natural and mutual 
interdependence of diverse pursuits and industries, — 
such as Jackson afforded in his letter to Dr. Coleman, 
and Henry Clay maintained and elucidated throughout 
his long and illustrious public career, then you are in 
substantial accord with us who uphold Protection, and 
should not hesitate to march under our flag. 



214 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XVI. 

AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING, SHIPPING, AND 
FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

In the later months of 1862, a scarcity of Printing 
Paper was proclaimed in this market and throughout 
our country. The protraction and desperation of oiir 
Civil War, whereof the close seemed indefinitely post- 
poned; the consequent dilution, expansion, and depre- 
ciation, of our Paper Currency ; the interruption (more 
complete then than months later, when our armies had 
perforated the cotton-growing region) of commercial in- 
tercourse between the planting and the manufacturing 
districts of our country ; the scarcity and dearness of 
Paper-makers' stock, whether of domestic or of foreign 
origin, — conspired to induce a concerted, sudden, and 
enormous, enhancement of the price of Paper. Many 
manufacturers, who were under contract to supply cer- 
tain newspaper establishments at specified prices for 
months, if not years, in prospect, repudiated . their en- 
gagements, pleading inability to fulfil them. Publish- 
ers, who had been for years printing paper that cost an 
average of ten cents per pound, found themselves sud- 
denly required to pay eighteen, twenty, and even so 
high as twenty-six cents per pound. The Tribune paid 
this latter price for large consignments, inferior in qual- 
ity to thousands of reams for which it had recently paid 
but nine cents ; and it sold much of this dear paper, 
after printing it, for considerably less than its prime cost. 
At a time when Business was stagnant and Advertising 
consequently slack, this sudden, unj)recedented advance 



HOW TO SECURE CHEAP PAPER. 215 

in what was (and is) by far their heaviest item of weekly 
outlay, threatened the cheap dailies with absolute ruin. 

At once, a concerted outcry was raised for cheapening 
Paper through the repeal of all duties on its importa- 
tion. Congress was promptly memorialized, in behalf of 
most of the leading joiu-nals, to cheapen Paper by allow- 
ing it to be imported duty-free. 

I did not concur in this representation, nor in the 
view which prompted it. That Paper might be some- 
what cheapened, for the moment, by putting it on the 
free-list, I could not doubt ; but I believed that such 
instant cheapening would be purchased at too great a 
cost to the country, and even to the newspapers them- 
selves. I believed that the true road to cheaper Paj)er 
lay through the encouragement of its Home production ; 
that cheapness thus secured would be real, beneficent, 
enduring, as that secured by a policy which widened the 
average distance between producer and consumer could 
not be. I stood forth, therefore, almost solitary in my 
resistance to the repeal of the duty (twenty per cent.) 
on the importation of Printing Paper. I held it better, 
even for the publishers, that they should pay this duty 
on the paper they might be impelled to import, than to 
have it temporarily cheapened by abolishing the impost, 
at the cost of discouraging the investment of capital and 
capacity in the discovery or adaptation of new material, 
the erection of new paper-mills, and the consequent 
cheapening of paper by means consistent with the full- 
est development of American Industry. 

These views prevailed. The duty on imported paper 
wa§ not taken off, though considerable quantities were 
imported under it, some of which was purchased for and 
used on The Tribune. Meantime, the high price of 
Paper incited the erection of new mills and the enlarge- 
ment of old ones, the improvement of processes, and tho 



216 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

extensive use thereby of fibrous substances previously 
deemed intractable ; and thus Printing Paper was ren- 
dered permanently abundant and reasonably cheap for 
the last two or three years, as it still remains. I be- 
lieve its average (gold) price has been as low throughout 
the last two years as in any former two, and lower than 
the corresponding prices of food, shelter, and clothing. 
In short, I believe that Paper has been cheapened to its 
consumers by holding on to the duty, and thus encour- 
aging its production at home rather than abroad. 

The same question, essentially, is now to be decided 
with regard to Iron, more especially its lowest and 
crudest manufactured form, that of Pig Iron. It is 
plausibly asserted that Pig Iron is now exorbitantly 
high, as Paper was in 1862 - 64, — that its producers are 
rapidly amassing fortunes, — that the only effect of the 
duty is to enhance the price without increasing the pro- 
duct, — and that a repeal or material reduction of the 
duty would simply reduce the price without affecting 
the production, — and that this would enable our rolling- 
mills, puddling furnaces, <fec., to cheapen their product 
and thus exteid their sales, and would hence give a 
new spring to our entire manufacturing industry, and 
especially to the department of Ship-Building, which is 
represented as at its last gasp. 

I do not believe that the road to real, permanent 
cheapness lies this way, nor can I realize that one de- 
partment of our manufacturing industry is to be bene- 
fited by the sacrifice of another. I see it stated, by 
those who have iron-mines or coal-fields to sell, or a 
manufacturing city to build, that Pig Iron has been, is, 
or may be, turned out from their choice materials', in 
their favored lo(*alHies, at $ 30, $ 25, $ 2.3, and perhaps 
even for $ 20 per ton ; und I give diie credit to their as- 
sertions. That is to; say : I presume that, under the 



HOW TO CHEAPEN IRON. 217 

most favorable circumstances, and taking no account of 
disappointments and failures, the results thus vaunted 
have been attained ; just as I know that some great 
farmers at the West have filled their bounteous cribs 
with Com at a cost not exceeding twenty-five cents per 
bushel, that could be sold there at fifty cents per bushel : 
and so with Wheat and other staple products of the soil ; 
while I know that Corn, Wheat, and everything else, 
cost in the average as much as they bring, else they would 
be sold for less. I note that those who so loudly inveigh 
against the enormous profits of making Pig Iron are very 
careful not to make any, and not to allow any of their 
means to be used in making any. There are, in Virginia 
alone, not less than One Million acres of first-rate Iron 
and Coal lands, mainly covered with choice timber for 
building and for coaling, that are this hour awaiting pur- 
chasers at fifty dollars per acre or less, — all of them 
within a few miles of railroad or water communication, 
and some of them directly on the great thoroughfares of 
the State, which is nevertheless buying abroad most of 
the (far too little) Iron she uses. I want to see a radical 
change in all this, — want to see those great forests in 
good degree turned into buildings and into charcoal; 
the mines opened and worked ; a full Million promptly 
added by immigration to the Mining and Manufacturing 
population of the State ; and an annual efflux of mil- 
lions of tons of Iron and Steel instead of the present 
influx of those metals ; and I do not believe that the 
short way to these results lies through the abolition or 
essential reduction of the duty on Pig Iron. That duty 
is exactly nine dollars per ton, which is exactly the same 
as it was by the Calhoun-Lowndes Tariff of 1816,— 
is the lowest specific duty ever imposed on Pig Iron in 
any tariff enacted from 1815 to 1861 inclusive. I believe 
it is doing good. — nay, I hiow it. Under this duty, 
10 



218 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

our annual product of Pig Iron has steadily increased, 
and is now increasing more rapidly than ever before. 
Throughout the South, the West and the Southwest, 
wherever Ore and. Fuel are found, there the production 
of Pig Iron has been undertaken or is now eagerly con- 
templated : let it be settled and understood that the 
duty will be maintained, and we shall have a thousand 
more furnaces in operation within the next two years. 
If there be a profit of even $ 5 per ton on the production 
of Pig Iron, that profit will draw more and more capital 
and labor into the business, until its product shall so 
abound that the price must fall and the profit average 
no more than that realized in other pursuits. If this 
be not the law of the case, then there is no such science 
as Political Economy, and no truth in the assumption 
that water, left free to do so, will run down hill. 

But it is said that we have been protecting the home 
production of Iron for half a century, and that we have 
not yet cheapened it a fraction ; so that it is high time 
we gave up the thriftless experiment. 

There are just two grave mistakes in this assumption : 
first, we have not protected the production of Iron for 
fifty years, nor even (steadily) for any twenty of them ; 
secondly, we have cheapened Iron to our consumers quite 
materially. On this point, let me state a few facts : — 

" The Merchants and Bankers' Almanac for 1869 " 
gives the monthly price in this city of various leading 
articles of commerce for the forty years from 1825 to 
1864 inclusive, whence I compile the following statis- 
tics, : — 

Average price of Pi^ Iron per ton in 1825, $ 59.90 gold. 

Average price of Indian Corn per ton (40 bush.) 22.10 " 
Average price of Wheat per ton (37-|- bushels) 34.41 " 
Average price of Upland Cotton per bale of 400 

pounds 73.66 " 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 219 

Cotton was exceptionally high that year, — very con- 
siderably higher than throughout the next, and still 
further above the prices that ruled in several succeeding 
years ; yet whoever will compare the above with the 
prices recently or now ruling will find that Iron now 
costs our farmers considerably less in money than it did 
forty-odd years ago, and not half so much in their labor 
or its products as it then did. Our Agricultural staples 
have decidedly improved in price, while Iron costs fewer 
Greenback dollars per ton now than it did Gold dollars 
in the infancy of Protection. 

I know that some hold that Iron would be still cheaper 
if we had never protected its home production. They 
argue that, since some foreign Iron sells here at the 
prices now ruling, our entire supply might be obtained 
at those prices, less the duty, if that duty were abolished. 
But reason, analogy, statistics, alike testify that, if we 
were calling on Europe for nearly Two Millions of tons 
of Pig Iron, in addition to what she now supplies us, 
the prices charged for it would be much higher than 
they are ; just as the present ruling prices of Cotton are 
much higher, because of the large and eager foreign de- 
mand, than they would be if no such demand existed. 
Put out our furnace-fires, or the larger portion of them, 
by compelling our iron-masters to pay double the cur- 
rent British prices for their labor, yet sell their product 
in even competition with their British rivals, and it is 
inevitable that the latter would first crush oiit the 
former by underselling, and then, having obtained con- 
trol of the market, reimburse their outlay b}^ charging 
prices that would make up their losses. 

But I had proposed in this essay to consider the state 
and prospects of American Ship-building and Shipping, 
with especial reference to the complaints of their decline 
and prostration through the influence (as is alleged) of 
our Protective legislation. 



220 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

These complaints are nowise novel. No approach, 
however timid, toward the Protection of our Home In- 
dustry, was ever made without provoking an outcry that 
our Navigation and Foreign Commerce were brought by 
it to the very brink of ruin. So long ago as 1824, Mr. 
Webster, — then a Free-Trader, — addressing the House 
in opposition to the Tariff of that year, touched this 
point as follows : — 

"And first, Sir, as to our foreign trade. Mr. Speaker 
[Clay] has stated tliat there has been a considerable falling off 
in the tonnage employed in that trade. This is true, lamen- 
tably true. In my opinion, it is one of those occurrences 
which ought to arrest our immediate, our deep, our most 
earnest attention. 

" What does this bUl propose for its relief? It proposes 
nothing but new burdens. It proposes to diminish its em- 
ployment, and it proposes, at the same time, to a,ugment its 
expense, by subjecting it to heavier taxation. Sir, there is 
no interest in regard to which a stronger case for Protection 
can be made out than the Navigating interest. Whether we 
look at its present condition, which is admitted to be de- 
pressed, the number of persons connected with it and de- 
pendent upon it for their daily bread, or its importance to the 
country in a political point of view, it has claims upon our at- 
tention which cannot be surpassed. But what do we propose 
to do for it ? I repeat, Sir, simply to burden and to tax it. 
By a statement which I have already submitted to the Com-' 
mittee, it appears that the shipping interest pays, annually, 
more than half a million of dollars in duties on articles used 
in the construction of ships. We propose to add nearly, or 
quite, fifty per cent, to this amount, at the very moment that 
we appeal to the languishing state of this interest as a proof of 
national distress. Let it be remembered that our shipping 
employed in foreign commerce has, at this moment, not a 
shadow of government protection. It goes abroad upon the 
wide sea to make its own way, and earn its own bread, in a 
professed competition with the whole world. Its resources 
are its own frugality, its own skill, its own enterprise. It 
hopes to succeed, if it shall succeed at all, not by extraordi- 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 221 

nary aid of government, but by patience, vigilance, and toil. 
This right arm of the nation's safety strengthens its ov^-n 
muscle by its own efibrts, and, by unwearied exertion in its 
own defence, becomes strong for the defence of the country. 

" No one acquainted with this interest can deny that its 
situation at this moment is extremely critical. We have left 
it hitherto to maintain itself or perish ; to swim if it can, and 
to sink if it must. But, at this moment of its apparent strug- 
gle, can we as men, can we as patriots, add another stone to 
the weight that threatens to carry it down ? 

" Sir, there is a limit to human power, and to human effort. 
I know the commercial marine of this country can do almost 
everything, and bear almost everything. Yet some things 
are impossible to be done, and some burdens may be impos- 
sible to be borne ; and, as it was the last ounce that broke 
the back of the camel, so the last tax, although it were even 
a small one, may be decisive as to the power of our marine 
to sustain the conflict in which it is now engaged with all the 
commercial nations of the globe." 

All this was, no doiibt, sincerely, honestly, as well as 
forcibly, impressively, said. Mr. Webster, representing a 
mercantile, navigating constituency, believed and held 
that Protection to Home Industry was necessarily, im- 
placably, hostile to Navigation and Foreign Commerce. 

But the Tariff so deprecated by Mr. Webster passed, 
notwithstanding his efforts ; and the official returns of 
ovir Commerce and Navigation exhibit the following re- 
sults : — 







Enrolled 


Enrolled 






U. S. Tonnage. 


and 


and 






Registered. 


Licensed 


Licensed 


Total 


Tears. 


Sail Tonnage. 


Sail Tonnage. 


Steam Tonnage. 


Tonnage. 


1820 


619.048 


661,119 




1,280,167 


1821 


619,896 


679,062 




1.298.958 


1822 


628,150 


690,549 




1,324.699 


1823 


639,921 


671,766 


24,879 


1,336,566 


1824 


669.973 


697,580 


21,610 


1,389.163 


1825 


700,788 


699.263 


23,061 


1,423.112 


1826 


737,978 


762; 1.54 


34.059 


1.534,191 


1827 


747,170 


833.240 


40,198 


1,620,608 


1828 


812,619 


889,355 


39,418 


1,741,392 



222 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

I have here given the official returns of our National 
tonnage for the year 1824 (wherein Mr. Webster talked 
as above), also for the fovu- years preceding, and the 
four succeeding respectively, so as to show how far the 
facts corresponded to or differed from Free Trade antici- 
pations, Mr. Webster assumed as inevitable that our 
Tonnage must be reduced and our Navigation dwindle 
if the Tariff bill then pending should pass ; but it did 
pass, nevertheless ; and the four years following showed 
an aggregate of 6,319,303 tons, against 5,240,390 tons in 
the four years preceding, — an increase of over twenty per 
cent. And the official returns further show that, whereas 
2,285 vessels in all, aggregating 253,994 tons, were built 
in the United States in the four years prior to 1824, no 
less than 3,841 vessels, with an aggregate capacity of 
439,153 tons, were built during the four years succeed- 
ing the passage of that bill.-^ 

In the light of these facts, I ask attention to the fol- 
lowing extract from the memorial ^ of our City's Cham- 
ber of Commerce, protesting against the passage of that 
same bill : — 

" Besides the diminution of the revenue which would arise 
from smuggling, there Avould be a still greater reduction in con- 
sequence of the enormous duties contemplated by the proposed 
bill. All the lower-priced cotton goods, flannels, and other 
coarse woollens, hemp, alum, copperas, gums, most of the 
enumerated articles of hardware, and many other articles 
which now pay to the Treasury large sums in duties, would 
either cease to be lawfully imported, or would be brought into 
the country in small quantities ; and the Grovernment would 
have to resort to some [other] mode of taxation bearing upon 

1 Annual Report of the Director of the Biireau of Statistics of the 
Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Fiscal Year 
ending June 80, 1867, p. 332. . 

2 Signed William Bayard, President, John Pintard, Secretary; dated 
January 23, and published in The Evening Post of February 9 1824, 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 223 

every part of the community, in order to supply the deficiency 
caused by extensive encouragement to a particular interest. 

" The Revenue would also decrease from a general decline 
of Commerce and Navigation. If "we prohibit or extrava- 
gantly tax foreign products, they cannot be imported into 
our country ; and, if we do not buy from other nations what 
they have to sell, and what we want, can it be expected that 
they will take from us our commodities? If we do not 
buy, we cannot sell; for on the supply of mutual wants 
is founded all the intercourse and all the Commerce of Na- 
tions, and, when they cease to be mutual, they cease to exist. 
Restrictive systems first operate on Commerce, then on Navi- 
gation and Agriculture ; and, when those great interests are 
prostrated, they necessarily bring down with them the Rev- 
enues of the Government." 

The Treasury returns -^ show that the receipts of our 
Government from Duties on Imports, for the four years 
preceding and the four succeeding 1824, were respective- 
ly as follows : — 



1§20 


$ 15,005,612 


1825 


$ 20,098,713 


1831 


13,004,447 


1826 


23,241,331 


1822 


17,589,761 


1827 


19,712,283 


1823 


19,088,433 


1828 


23,20.5,523 



Total, 4 yrs. $ 64,688,253 Total, 4 yrs. % 86,357,850 

Aggregate excess in the four years under the Tariff of 
1824 over the four years preceding, $ 21,669,597. 

How many such discomfitures as this should he re- 
quired to make Free-Traders distrustful of the theories 
which doom them to such exposure 1 

We are not now building vessels extensively, save for 
our domestic trade, and are not likely soon to be. One 
reason for this is the great falling off since our Civil 
War in the volume of our Cotton and other Southern 

1 Appleton's Cyclopaadia, Vol. XV. p. 816. 



224 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

staples which formed the bulk of our exports. We 
made Five Millions of bales, or One Million tons, of Cot- 
ton, in 1860 ; whereas, we have since the War made but 
Two Millions of bales to Two and a Half per annum ; 
and of this we require a full third for our home con- 
sumption, which is quite as much as we ever did. 
Consequently, we have less than Two Millions for ex- 
port ; whereas we formerly had over Four Millions. 
Our production of Rice, Sugar, and Tobacco, has like- 
wise fallen off, though now slowly recovering. Of course, 
we do not need so many ships as we once did ; and the 
great gaps in our Commercial Marine caused by the ex- 
ploits ^ of the Confederate Alabamas, Shenandoahs, &c., 
or by transfers (nominal or actual) of American vessels 
to foreigners, have not been filled ; for, if we had had 
the vessels, we lacked employment for them. And, the 
reduction of our seaboard tonnage occurred simultane- 
ously with a great, though quiet, marine revolution, 
through the rapid displacement of sailing by steam ves- 
sels, — such, at least, as have steam for an ultimate re- 
source, in the absence of propitious winds. 

Sir Morton Peto, in his notes ^ on his visit to this 
country, judiciously observes : — 

" In this question of construction will, probably, be found 
one main difficulty attending American steam intercourse 

1 The sales of American vessels to foreigners during the forty years 
closing with 1867 amounted to 1,38T,752 tons; whereof no less than 
774,654 tons — considerably more than half — were made during 
the four years 1862-65. And, though a considerable proportion of 
these sales were merely nominal, intended only to give the vessels 
thereby transferred protection from Confederate corsairs under a neutral 
flag, Congress has thus far rejected all petitions to allow any of them 
to be again registered as American. (See U. S. Annual Eeport of 
Commerce and Navigation for 1867, p. xxix.) 

2 The Resources and Prospects of America, ascertained during a 
visit to the States in the Autumn of 1865. By Sir S. Morton Peto, 
Bart. London. 1866. 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 225 

■•^ith Europe. They cannot construct steamships in the Unit- 
ed States to the same advantage that we can in Grreat Britain. 
Not only are our rates of wages less, but our steamship-build- 
ing yards on the Clyde, the Tyne, and the Mersey, are sit- 
uated close to the raw materials — the Iron and the Coal — 
required for the purpose of steamship construction. This 
circumstance must always give Great Britain an advantage 
over the United States in respect to navigation conducted by 
steamers. The first cost of our steamships always will be 
less ; and, the capital invested in them being less, of course 
they can be worked to advantage at lower rates. In addition 
to this, we derive, at present, a considerable advantage from 
the superior quality of the steam coal with which our ships 
can be supplied." 

Here, you see, are reasons for our backwardness in 
building and running ocean steamers which no policy 
could surmount. Our Labor is dearer, our facilities for 
the cheap production of Steamships less ample, than 
those of Great Britain. While the ocean was navigate 
ed by sail-vessels almost exclusively, the abundance and 
cheapness of our Timber gave us advantages which 
counteracted the cheap Labor and Metals of our Euro- 
pean rivals ; but we lost this when steam was substitut- 
ed for wind as a motive power. And not we only, but 
our Colonial neighbors lost it as well. They have cheap 
Labor and Metals ; but Ship-building has nevertheless 
deserted the St. Lawrence, as well as the Hudson and 
the Delaware, for the Clyde, — has abandoned Nova 
Scotia as well as Maine. But a small part of it could 
be coaxed back to our shores by the repeal of our Tariff. 
Even though that should reduce our Labor to European 
prices, we should still encounter obstacles in the capital, 
the machinery, the experience, the location, and the 
prestige, of our British rivals, which we could not hope 
to overcome. 

The complaints of stagnation in Ship-building are not 
10* o 



226 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

confined even to our continent. They are (except as to 
the construction of iron steamships on the Clyde and at 
a few other favored locahties in Europe) universal. A 
popular British annual -"^ for 1869, in its "Commercial 
Summary for 1868- 69," says : — 

" In both wood and iron ship-building, general and great 
depression existed in 1867. On the Thames, this almost 
amounted to a suspension of the latter, causing the greatest 
distress in the eastern parts of the metropolis: at least 
40,000 persons being rendered destitute of employ. The 
relative totals of ship-building in 1866 and 1867 were as 
follows for all parts of the kingdom : — 

Vessels. Tons. 

1866 . . . 2,734 736,499 

1867 . . . 2,180 465,899 



Decrease . . .554 270,600 

Facts and figures that require no further remarks to impress 
the discouraging character of the trade for the year. Ship- 
building on the Clyde — in respect to iron vessels — suffered 
less than at other ports, owing to the material being on the 
spot, and abundance of skilled labor at hand. The same 
may be remarked in reference to the ports in the north of 
England ; while the Mersey suffered similar depression to 
that of the Thames district, owing to many foreign vessels 
having passed into British hands. The total registered ves- 
sels show an increase for the year 1867 over that of 1866. 
The registered tonnage, &c., were for 

Vessels. Tons. Men. 

1867 . . 40,942 7,277,098 346,606 

1866 . . 40,912 7,297,984 346,799 

The chief source of the increase of vessels was due to the 
sale of many belonging to the United States to British own- 
ers. In the first eleven months of 1867, British shipping de- 
creased to the extent of 378 vessels, but increased to the 

1 An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1869. By Joseph Whit- 
taker. London, p. 367. 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 227 

extent of 29,116 tons, entered inward. It increased by 1,309 
vessels, registering 673,910 tons, cleared outward; wliile 
Foreign tonnage decreased in comparison with 1866 to tlie 
extent of 1,034 vessels, registering 120,543 tons entered in- 
ward; and increased 573 vessels, registering 160,990 tons, 
clearing outward with cargo. In respect to the value of 
British shipping, an improvement arose with a return of con- 
fidence in the money market." 

That this stagnation of the ship-building industry of 
the Thames continues, and is complete and final, is at- 
tested by the London correspondent of the New York 
Times, who, in a recent letter,^ says : — 

" From the earliest dawn of British commerce down to 1860, 
the ship-yards on the banks of the Thames were preeminent 
in the Old World for the number and excellence of the ves- 
sels which were built upon their ways. All this is changed. 
Since 1860, their business has fallen off; and now a mournful 
scene of desolation greets a visitor to the once famous yards 
of Green, Wigram, Somes, and Young, all celebrated in their 
day as builders of the renowned Indiamen of the olden time. 
A few of their old frigate-built ships still live, and make their 
annual voyages to Calcutta ; but, like the New York packet- 
ships, they are veterans, and are the last of their race. The 
great works and factories at Millwall, once occupied by Scott 
Eussell, are dismantled and closed, the machinery sold, the 
factories tenantless, and the building-yard — the birthplace 
of the Great Eastern — a grass-grown waste. The adjoining 
yards and foundry of Mare & Co., and the London Engineer- 
ing Company, are in the same condition as Scott Russell's yard. 
Samuda Brothers, builders of some eighty steamers, some of 
them the fastest vessels that plough the seas, are idle ; and on 
all the Isle of Dogs, where a few years ago one could count 
sixteen to twenty large steamers, there are now four vessels 
only. One of the four is the double-screw monitor Abyssinia, 
for the British Government. The other three are fast steam- 
ers for the opium-trade on the coast of China ; and these three 
opium smugglers are the only merchant vessels now building 

1 Dated Sept. 3; printed Oct. 11, 1869. 



228 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

upon the once prolific Thames. At the Thames Iron "Works, 
below Blackwall, — one of the most complete and extensive 
ship-building works in the kingdom, — I saw the double-screw 
monitor Magdala, which, with the Abyssinia, is to go out to 
Bombay, and remain there to defend that harbor, and two 
casemate iron-clads for the Sultan of Turkey, but not one 
merchant steamer. The Thames Company built most of the 
steamers in the Peninsula and Oriental Company's fleet, and 
have also built several steamers for the Royal Mail Company ; 
but both companies have deserted the Thames for the cheaper 
yards on the Clyde, and this establishment, hke those higher 
up the river, seems to be doomed. 

" The prosperity of London as a ship-building port is at an 
end, and no one here looks for a revival of the business. All 
admit that they cannot compete with the cheaper iron, cheaper 
coal, and cheaper labor, of the Tyne and the Clyde. Hence- 
forth, the ships and steamers required to carry on the vast 
sea-borne commerce of London will be built in the North. 
Even the old London ship-builders, who are also ship-owners, 
are now ordering vessels from their northern rivals, and a 
very large proportion of the tonnage now on the stocks on 
the Clyde and Tyne is for London owners, who long held to 
the belief that London Avas the only place in the world where 
a good ship could be built. In the principal docks, the changed 
character of the ships which now carry on the trade of Lon- 
don with distant ports is very marked. Twelve years ago, 
the East India trade with London was carried in London- 
built and American-built ships. More than one hundred of 
the latter arrived in London, from India, in one year ; and it 
was no unusual thing to see a dozen or fifteen large American 
clippers discharging cargo in the East India docks. Alas! 
the East India docks know them no more ! They have dis- 
appeared, and their places are filled by the iron and composite 
clippers of the Clyde and the Tyne. The downfall of the vast 
ship-building industry of London has been attended with 
wide-spread and bitter distress ; many thousands of workmen 
have been thrown out of their accustomed employment, 'not 
for a day, but for all time.' Vigorous eflbrts have been made 
to obtain work for some of the yards for the sole purpose of 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 229 

relieving the operatives ; but it is now settled that nothing 
can be done, and many of the poor liave been assisted to emi- 
grate to the nortli and to tlie Colonies. The eastern builders, 
with only two or three exceptions, have abandoned the busi- 
ness of building, and only wait an opportunity to let out their 
premises to some more profitable industry." 

The same correspondent, writing from Liverpool, at a 
later day,^ says : — 

" The fact that ships built of wood have greatly depreciated 
in value within the past ten years is amply contirmed by the 
present condition of the ship-building business of New Bruns- 
wick and the other British American provinces. Before iron 
ships came into general use, a large and thriving ship-building 
business was carried on at St. John's and other provincial 
towns. The new ships were sent over here, and sold at prices 
which paid their builders a satisfactory profit. Scores of such 
ships were sold in a single season at about £ 9 sterling per 
ton ; but now a good new St. John's ship will not sell here 
for £ 5 sterling per ton : for there is no demand for them here, 
and the business of building large ships in British America is 
destroyed. The builders there are no longer able to compete 
with the British builders of iron ships, and they can no longer 
sell a new ship for a price which will cover the cost of con- 
struction. The destruction of ship-building in New Bruns- 
wick cannot be charged upon a high tariff or disordered cur- 
rency, nor upon advanced rates for labor or other charges con- 
nected with ship-building. Materials and labor are cheaper 
there than they were ten years ago : and contracts to build 
ships are now offered at much cheaper rates than those which 
obtained when ship-building was a profitable pursuit. Ships 
entitled to a seven years' class at Lloyd's can now be con- 
tracted for at St. John's at £5 sterling per ton; but no one 
on this side of the water will take them, even at that low 
figure. The only business left to the New Brunswick and 
Nova Scotia ship-builder is the building of vessels of small 
tonnage to trade between the Provinces and the United 
States, and between the United States and the West Indies. 

1 Sept. 30 ; printed Oct. 30. 



230 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

In both those trades, they compete only with the wooden 
vessels of the United States, and not with the iron ships and 
steamers of Europe." 

Perhaps I ought not to close this chapter without allud- 
ing to the spirited and measurably successful attempt to 
naturalize the building of iron steamers at Wilmington, 
Delaware, by the Harlan and HoUingsworth Company. 
The Iron Age, lately constructed by them (and this is 
by no means their first -vessel), is commended by good 
judges as a strong, swift, and every way serviceable, sear 
going steamship of 650 tons, built at a cost of $ 85 per 
ton for the hull, and $ 15 per ton for the rigging ; while 
the aggregate British cost of similar steamers is $ 94 
per ton. The builders say that the Pennsylvania iron, 
which they use exclusively, is of better quality than its 
British rival ; so that our plates are one-eighth thinner, 
while the Oak and Ash exclusively used for the wood-w^ork 
are cheaper here than in England, and the aggregate cost 
of hull not $ 1 per ton higher than that of an equally good 
vessel built on the Clyde. The cost of rigging here is, 
however, forty per cent, greater than in Great Britain. 
I give these statistics as I received them, without infer- 
ring therefrom that the building of iron ships is soon 
to become an important and prosperous department of 
our National Industry. 

The Hon. George Opdyke, an eminent Free-Trader, 
touched the corner of an important truth when he ob- 
served : ^ — 

" It is a universal truth that the more populous a country 
becomes, the less of agricultural products will be exported 
from it, because it will require a larger part of them for home 
consumption. Increasing density of population always tends 
to develop the manufacturing, mining, and mechanic arts; 

1 Proceedings and Debates in the Constitutional Convention of the 
State of New York, p. 1443. 



AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 231 

and, when the population grows so dense that it consumes 
more agricultural products than it produces, — like England, 
for example, — it necessarily becomes an importer of agricul- 
tural products and an exporter of manufactures. During the 
period of transition, the foreign commerce of a nation must 
gradually diminish." 

We entered largely into the Ocean Steamship business 
some fifteen years ago, and persisted in it till our ener- 
gigs were absorbed in our great Civil War ; but it proved 
a costly undertaking to our Treasury (by means of heavy 
subsidies for Mail service), and not very profitable to 
those engaged in it : so we have almost wholly ceased to 
run steamers to Europe ; contenting ourselves with subsi- 
dized lines to China and Japan, also to Brazil, with small- 
er packets to Havana, the Isthmus of Darien, and a few 
points of minor importance. While we did run steamers 
to European ports, they encountered this obstacle to 
success : Most of the freight that could afford to pay 
steamship charges consisted of British, French, and Ger- 
man manufactures, shipped by the makers and their 
agents, who, very naturally, gave a preference over our 
vessels to those of their own countrymen, leaving our 
ships to run empty or to fill up with freight that did not 
pay their running expenses. This competition was so 
manifestly one-sided that our merchants were glad to 
abandon it. 

What would exactly serve and suit our shippers and 
ship-builders would be Protection for our Navigating in- 
terest, and for nothing else. Give them foreign Iron 
and Copper, Hemp and Cordage, Anchors and Cables, 
free of duty, with a monopoly of our Coasting Trade, 
and a favoring discrimination in our Navigation laws 
and port-charges, and they might experience an instant 
enlargement of activity and revival of prosperity ; but, 
if we had no National Debt, and no Tariff" at all, but 



232 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the most absolute Free Trade, with our Labor far 
cheaper than now, as it naturally would be, the advan- 
tage would still (as Sir Morton Peto shows) be on the 
side of their British rivals, who have, through years of 
prosperous activity in the construction and use of sea- 
going steamers, accumulated a thousand facilities and 
labor-saving devices, which, along with experience, emi- 
nent skill, and aggregated capital, we have still to ac- 
quire and concentrate. Ocean steamers are still rapidly 
superseding sailing vessels ; and those steamers are and 
will be mainly built and run by nations that produce a 
surplus of manufactures, and are constantly exploring 
the out-of-the-way corners of the earth for new markets 
wherein to sell them. For our country to rush into the 
establishment of lines of ocean steamships before largely 
protecting and extending her manufactures, would be 
like beginning to construct a house at the attic, and 
thence building downward to the foundations. 

Our Ship-building and Navigation will revive, not be- 
fore, but in consequence of, the firm establishment and 
prosperity of our Home Industry. Let us thoroughly 
develop our Mining and Manufacturing capacities, and 
their command of machinery and power will enable us to 
produce cheaply Wares and Fabrics now exported only 
by European nations, whose cheap labor and ripe experi- 
ence give them advantages over us, but whom, under a 
wise policy, we shall yet overtake and pass, as we have 
already done in the production of Edge Tools, Ploughs 
and most Agricultural Implements, Nails, Pins, and a 
hundred articles of general utility and great value, but 
which — simply because they are made by ourselves, or 
at our own doors — do not figure in our Treasury Re- 
ports, and are not regarded as elements of our National 
Commerce and Wealth. 



CREDIT — ITS USES AUD ABUSES. 233 



XVII. 

CREDIT — ITS USES AND ABUSES — FOREIGN 
INDEBTEDNESS— OUR NATIONAL DEBT. 

We are a young people, largely employed in the slow 
and rugged process of clearing away the primitive forest, 
breaking up natural prairie, building, fencing, draining, 
and in every way subduing and adapting the earth to 
the uses of civilized man. We are a sanguine people, 
with unbounded faith in our own capacity, and in the 
rapid growth of our country in population, wealth, and 
power. We are an aspiring, audacious people, and 
choose to direct rather than be directed. Our boys are 
eager to be men ; our young men want to " get into 
business " forthwith. Being a people of yesterday, we 
have less accumulated wealth than we probably shall 
have centuries hence, or than the peoples of Europe 
have generally acquired. And, young as we are, intelli- 
gence and enterprise are qviite generally diffused among 
us, so that we seek to achieve our industrinl ends by the 
use of machinery, animals, steam, where ruder and more 
ignorant workers rely wholly or mainly on human muscle. 
We are epicurean, sumptuous, profuse, prone to ostenta- 
tion, and reckless of expense. Too many of us shun 
productive industry, and seek subsistence, success, wealth, 
eminence, through Trade, Speculation, or one of the 
Professions. Hence, we require capital much faster than 
we create it, and are prone to run into debt. We ran 
into debt as colonists ; we borrowed from France and 
Holland to svistain our War for Independence ; and 
Shays' s Rebellion and kindred disturbances were incited 



234 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

by a general and agonizing pressure of debt. The Fed- 
eral Constitution and Government, insuring greater 
stability and prosperity than we had previously enjoyed, 
enabled us to extend the sphere of our borrowing, and 
to incur mercantile and corporate as well as National 
obligations in Europe ; to which State debts were soon 
added. When we had low tariffs, we incurred debts 
abroad ; when the duties were raised, we left those debts 
unpaid, and sometimes incurred new. Thus we had 
gone on, until, at the outbreak of our Secession troubles, 
we were owing Europe, mainly in the shape of State, 
Railroad, and other corporate bonds, not less than Foivc 
Hundred Millions of Dollars. 

In the first two years of the War we added little to 
this aggregate ; for the first year, nothing. We con- 
tinued to export Grain, Lard, and some Meats ; we 
soon began to export Petroleum ; our export of Cheese 
steadily increased ; and we bought Fabrics less freely 
than we bad previously done, partly because a novel 
and absorbing sensation had dwarfed the passion for 
dress and display ; partly because our internal credit 
system had broken down, and rural traders, no longer 
able to replenish their stocks on credit, bought little or 
nothing. But, long before the close of bur four years' 
struggle, we had established new credits, mainly through 
the sale abroad of the bonds representing our rapidly 
expanding War Debt, had suddenly enriched a large 
class through contracts and other operations, popularly 
grouped under the designation of " Shoddy," and had 
run heavily into debt for Army Blankets, Nitre, &c., &c., 
which we paid for mainly in bonds. Thus the last two 
years of the War saw our Foreign indebtedness largely 
increased, while its close found the shelves of our inland 
stores nearly bare of Fabrics, and their supply of Gro- 
ceries very limited. Throughout the States lately domi- 



CEEDIT — ITS USES AND ABUSES. 235 

Hated by the Rebellion there was an absolute dearth of 
merchandise ; while Cattle had been swept off and Im- 
plements destroyed or worn out during the progress of 
the contest. To fill up our stores with an average assort- 
ment, at least Two Hundred Millions' worth of Goods 
were imperatively reqixired ; while evidences of National 
indebtedness, diifused through purchases of supplies and 
the paying off of our armies, were cheap, abundant, 
and very widely sown. Our National credit, which had 
ruled low abroad throughout 1863 and 1864, was natural- 
ly much improved by the completeness of the National 
triimiph, so that our bonds temporardy sold for more in 
Europe than they wei'e worth (in gold) at home. Hence, 
in spite of the restraining influence of our Tariff, which 
had been once more rendered Protective in 1861, and 
■was somewhat increased on sundry articles in 1864 and 
1865, we imported heavily during the three years fol- 
lowing the close of our struggle, though our crops (at 
the South especially) of exportable produce were quite 
light, and their prices much reduced by the return of 
peace. During the last year or two our National In- 
dustry has been more efficient, while the price of Cot- 
ton has been more remunei'ative to the grower ; but we 
are in debt to Europe not less than One Thousand Mil- 
lions of Dollars, about three-fourths of it in the form of 
National bonds or obligations ; the residue almost wholly 
composed of State bonds and those of Railroads and 
other corporations. The annual interest on this vast 
burden cannot fall below Sixty Millions of Dollars in 
gold ; and our Exports (including Specie) should over- 
balance our Imports by at least this amount. 

But they do not ; they rarely or never did ; and it 
were bold to predict that, so long as Europe will trust 
us further, they ever will. Thus far, we pay our quar- 
terly accruing coupons of interest by exporting and sell' 



236 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

ing more bonds. About every fourth year, Europe has a 
short crop of Grain, and then we supply her needs large- 
ly at fair prices ; but our great grain-growing districts 
are too remote and too far inland to enable us to com- 
pete on equal terms with the wheat-growers of Poland 
and of Southern Eussia for the capricious markets of 
Great Britain and of France. Of Sugar, Eice, Wool, 
Metals, and nearly every Textile Fabric, we need all we 
produce and more too ; our Exports are nearly restricted 
to a few bulky staples, — Cotton, Cheese, Lard, Bacon, 
Petroleum, &c., &c. We are constructing Eailroads 
more rapidly and generally than we ever did prior to 
1868 ; we are opening mines, building factories and fur- 
naces, erecting houses, and converting forest and prairie 
into farms ; and all these involve heavy present outlay 
to achieve prospective benefits. These all strongly tend 
to keep up the prices of every commodity, stimulate Im- 
ports, diminish Exports, and so to increase the sum 
total of our indebtedness abroad. We are adding not 
less than Two Billions per annum to our aggregate 
wealth ; but we do this at the cost of increasing, by 
perhaps One Hundred Millions annually, the sum of our 
foreign debt. 

We have an Irredeemable Currency, — that is, a Cur- 
rency which is not exchangeable for the specie dollars it 
would seem to represent, unless at a heavy and capri- 
cious discount. By consequence, the nominal price of 
every commodity is from twenty to fifty per cent, higher 
than its real price, regarding coin as a standard. A bar- 
rel of Flour or a ton of Coal sold for $ 10 really brings 
but $ 7 to $ 8 ; so with all prices of Produce ; so with 
the wages of Labor. Nothing is currently estimated at 
its real or specie value but Duties on Imports and the 
bonded National Debt. 

There are those who fancy these iUusory prices and 



FOREIGN INDEBTEDNESS. 237 

valuations advantageous to our Home Manufactures ; I 
never could accept their premises nor comprehend their 
logic. A ton of Pig Iron. that sells for $ 40 in currency 
really brings less than $ 30 when Gold is 135 ; the con- 
sumer who buys Iron rarely considers that whatever he 
produces or sells is estimated or priced by the same de- 
lusive standard, but fancies that Iron is dearer than for- 
merly. The duties on Iron are considerably lower than 
those levied by the Tariff of 1828, of 1824, or even of 
1816 ; but a Free-Trader adds 35 or 40 per cent, for dif- 
ference in currency, and tells the farmer that Pig Iron 
now enjoys a Protection of $13 @ $14; whereas, it 
used to have but $ 10, Every little trickster who ma- 
nipulates figures in the Importing interest will tell you 
that a certain duty is 20, 30, or 40 per cent, in gold; as 
though it were the least fraction more than exactly 20, 
30, or 40 per cent, as the case may be : the value being 
given in gold as well as the duty ; so that 20 per cent, 
is exactly one-fifth of the invoice value, and neither 
more nor less than if it were computed in currency. If 
an inflated, factitious, irredeemable Currency were favor- 
able to the prosperity of Manufactures, then Hayti 
ought to be able to beat the w^orld in manufacturing ; 
for her Government paper currency is at a discount of 
900 or over for one. 

I firmly believe that our inflated Currency is injurious 
to Manufactures, as to every other producing interest, — 
that it were better for all who eschew speculation and 
try to live by honest industry if we were down on rock 
bottom this moment. I am not warring upon those who 
hold and teach that there might and should be a Paper 
Currency devised and adopted which should be irredeem- 
able in coin, yet more beneficent than any we have yet 
had : I only insist that a Paper CUirrency should expi'ess 
on its face its true character, — should declare precisely 



238 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

where, when, and in what medium it is payable, or, if 
not payable at all, should make manifest that fact. I 
am quite impressed with the arguments in favor of issu- 
ing $10,000, $5,000, $1,000, $500, and even $100 
bills, drawing interest at the rate of 3^^^^ per annum 
(or one cent per day on each $ 100) : so that a man who 
travelled with $ 50,000 in his pocket or trunk, at an av- 
erage cost of $ 5 per day, might defray his expenses from 
the interest of his cash in hand. I believe we can and 
must ultimately devise the means of making our Na- 
tional Debt more fluid than it is, and that this would 
help us to reduce the rate of interest, and thus render 
the burden far less serious. 

I am of that old-fashioned school which can see in a 
National Debt no National blessing, but the contrary, 
though some of its incidents may seem beneficent. We 
are paying about $ 125,000,000 per annum in gold as in- 
terest on our great National Debt, — more than Great 
Britain pays, though the principal of her Debt is to ours 
as 40 is to 25. If we could reduce the interest of our 
Five-Twenties alone from six to four per cent., the saving 
to the Federal Treasury would exceed Thirty Millions per 
annum, — a sum that, invested in a Sinking Fund, would 
pay off the last dollar of our Debt within the next forty 
years. In my view, a cardinal object of our National 
policy should be the funding of our redeemable debt at 
a low rate of interest at the earliest possible day. 

To effect this, we must have an ample current Reve- 
nue, so as to be constantly buying up and cancelling evi- 
dences of National Debt. So long as we, in addition to 
paying our interest promptly and honestly, buy up Fivei 
to Ten Millions per month of the principal of our Debt, 
its market value must continue to appreciate, unless the 
holders be rendered apprehensive that Repudiation is 
likely to gain the ascendency in our Government and give 



OUR NATIONAL DEBT. 239 

effect to some scheme for cheating the creditors of the 
RepubHc. This peril being dissipated or reduced to a 
minimum, our bonds should steadily appreciate, until we 
can easily fund the Five-Twenties at a far lower rate of 
interest than the six per cent, we now pay, and thus 
signally reduce the weight of our Debt. By that time, 
the difference between our Greenbacks and Coin should 
be wholly effaced, so that the former shoiild be redeemed 
■with coin when presented for payment at the Treasury, 
and oivr Currency be uniform in value with the number 
of dollars expressed on its face. 

But this involves lower prices for Produce and for 
Goods, and will be strenuously resisted by multitudes, 
who find or fancy that they profit by inflation. Some 
of these are deeply in debt ; others have property which 
they wish to sell at higher prices ; many are involved in 
speculations which require an easy money market to 
insure an advantageous result. By all these and by 
others. Resumption wnll be fought step by step ; and I 
shall be agreeably disappointed if Congress is not agitat- 
ed, at an early period of the ensuing session, by a stren- 
uous effort to arrest the purchases of Debt which Sec- 
retary Boutwell has so successfully inaugurated, and 
return to the hoarding practice — it were to dignify it 
overmuch to term it a policy — of Secretary McCuUoch. 

And one ready mode of assault on the National Credit 
is afforded by an effort to cut down the Tariff to what is 
called a Revenue standard. Though no Tariff framed 
avowedly for Revenue ever yielded nearly so much money 
as we are now realizing from a Tariff avowedly Protective, 
we shall be told that we may obtain as large an income 
from low duties on a few articles as from high duties on 
many, and a desperate struggle will be made to recast the 
Tariff on this assumption as an economic truth. This 
will be backed by every avowed or secret champion of 



240 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

National dishonesty ; for, while there are many Free- 
Traders who abhor Repudiation, there are not a dozen 
Repudiators in the country who are not vehement Free- 
Traders. Should this formidable combination triumph, 
the payment of the principal of our National Debt will 
be arrested, the funding of the Five-Twenties at a lower 
rate of interest, with consequent reduction of the public 
burden, will be rendered impossible, the resumption of 
Specie Payments will be indefinitely postponed, and the 
country will be doomed to flounder in an abyss of insol- 
vency and discredit, until an aroused and enlightened 
public sentiment shall hurl from power the authors of 
these wanton, pervading disasters. 

There is an opposite course, infinitely wiser and safer, 
which I trust will be taken or persisted in ; whereof the 
outlines are as follows : — 

1. Sternly resolve that we will persist in paying oui* 
National Debt, and every fraction of it, precisely as we 
agreed to pay it, — as we were imderstood to stipulate at 
the time of contracting it, — and thus establish our 
credit so firmly that capitalists will be eager to lend us 
the means of redeeming at a far lower rate of interest 
the obligations on which we are now paying six per cent., 
and on which the right of redemption has already ac- 
crued or will soon be unquestionable. 

2. Resolutely set apart and consecrate every dollar we 
thus save, to be devoted to the payment or purchase of 
principal of our National Debt, in addition to the " one 
per cent, per annum " which we are already pledged to 
pay by the Legal Tender act of 1862. 

3. Make no changes in the essential provisions of our 
existing Tariff; correct from time to time any discrepan- 
cies or errors of detail that may be discovered; but 
leave it so that it will yield about the amount of revenue 
we are now receiving from it, and appropriate the sur- 



OUR NATIONAL DEBT. 241 

plus inflexibly to paying interest and principal of the 
Debt. 

4. Reduce our internal imposts or excise on Whiskey, 
Tobacco, and other articles heavily charged, whenever it 
is proved that we may do so without loss of revenue, 
but retain them at a figiu-e high enough to defray the 
current cost of supporting the Government after the 
Income Tax (which expires by limitation next year) shall 
have ceased to be productive. 

5. Maintain in prosperous activity all the industrial 
pui'sviits we already possess, and endeavor to extend our 
production of Iron, Gold, Silver, Copper, and other Met- 
als, while encouraging and extending the production on 
our soil of Tea, Sugar, the Grape, the Olive, &c., &c., 
with no expectation of supplying all our wants from do- 
mestic sources, but with a resolute, firm, intelligent pur- 
pose that our Exports shall soon be made to overbalance 
our Imports, so that we may cease transmitting to Eu- 
rope bonds which are really mortgages on the industry 
and products of our grandchildren, and begin to call 
back and pay off the large amount we ah'eady owe there, 
with intent that the close of this centmy shall find us 
out of debt as a Nation and out of debt to Europe as 
individuals, companies, or States. 

Such are the outlines of a policy which commends it- 
self to my understanding as honest, beneficent, condu- 
cive to National solvency, and truly American. 

I believe that it will take us gradually and surely back 
to Specie Payments ; but I do not imagine that it would 
restore us the low prices of forty, of twenty, nor even of 
ten years ago. The enormous production since 1848 
of Gold and Silver in California, Australia, and else- 
where, has permanently increased the volume of the 
world's currency, and thus enhanced the money price of 
almost every description of property : blot all paper 
11 p 



242 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

money out of existence, and still prices would usually 
range higher than they were twenty years ago. But we 
have lately incurred a great Debt, involving heavy taxa- 
tion; and such a Debt of itself strongly tends to en- 
hanced prices, as Great Britain, Holland, and (more 
recently) France, amply attest. The general range of 
prices is and must be higher in a country largely in- 
debted and heavily taxed than in that same or any sim- 
ilar country which owes but little or nothing, and is 
taxed accordingly. Destroy all the specie that has been 
mined or worked out since 1848, close up the mines, and 
still prices would be higher with us than they were prior 
to OTu- late Civil War. 

Yet the habits and impulses of a people are not easily 
modified, while they are rarely and with great difficulty 
transformed. The fact that three-fourths of us would 
incur debt if any one stood ready to lend, and, if already 
in debt, would like to plunge in still deeper, is the fun- 
damental difficulty of our financial position. The poor 
man would like to buy a farm or start a shop or store on 
credit ; if he has already a place whereon to stand, he 
wants a better house, or a new barn, or a convenient 
wood-lot, or some more efficient machinery, — in short, 
he wants to incur debt ; and he may sometimes effect 
this by paying for his new purchase and letting his ac- 
count at the store run on ; but all comes to one end : 
more debt in the country, and more debt from this 
country to Europe. Whenever we make a new railroad 
or erect a factory or furnace, we look around to see 
where the money can be borrowed on mortgage to pay 
for the materials at least, and as much more as possible. 
And, so long as this shall be the case, we shall make 
poor headway in paying off debt, public or private. Our 
prevalent, overruling tendency pulls in the opposite di- 
rection. 



OUR NATIONAL DEBT. 243 

The practical remedy lies not in vain attempts to stop 
the construction of railroads, the erection of buildings, 
the opening of mines, the multiplication of factories, the 
impi'ovement of farms. All these must and will go on, 
unless we madly arrest them by breaking down the Pro- 
tection of our imperiled Industry. Progress is the law 
of our National life ; arrest it, and the weight of our 
public burdens will crush either our solvency or our 
National integrity. And, to my mind, while the disso- 
lution of our Union, through the triumphant establish- 
ment and recognition of the Soiithern Confederacy, would' 
have been a National misfortune, the Repudiation of our 
National Debt would be a still greater and more de- 
plorable calamity. Any true father would much prefer 
that his son should become a needy bankrupt rather 
than a rich villain : so I would regard the failure to pay 
our Public Debt, promptly and fully, as beyond com- 
parison more disastrous than a division of our country. 

We must crush Repudiation as we have discomfited 
Secession. We must stop the increase of our European 
as we have already stopped the total increase of our 
National Debt ; we must begin to reduce and pay off the 
former as we have already begun to reduce and pay off 
the latter. We must do this, not by ceasing to con- 
struct and repair and improve, but by more fully em- 
ploying our Labor in downright Production and by 
extending and rendering more efficient our National In- 
dustry. We must grow more Grain, Grass, Vegetables, 
and Fruits : we must extend our Manufacturing and 
Mechanical Industry in order to furnish ample Home 
Markets for the thus augmented produce of our farmers. 
Take ten thousand people who live from hand to mouth 
by occasional fishing or hunting, doing odd jobs of work 
for others, having a cow per family running in the road 
and a pig picking up a living as he may, with a patch 



244 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of poor garden by every other shanty, and gather these 
same ten thousand into a manufacturing village, set 
them steadily at work, and now they will purchase and 
use twice as much food, clothing, furniture, &c., as they 
did or could before. Thus, every new furnace or factory 
built or old one started up, insures a large addition not 
merely to the National production and wealth, but to 
its consumption as well. 

And this good work is now rapidly proceeding. There 
is hardly an old furnace in the Union that has not in- 
creased its capacity and its product within the last year : 
while hundreds of new ones have been constructed and 
set to work, or are now in process of construction, in the 
South, in the West, and in almost every quarter of the 
Union. Missouri now supplies Pig Iron to Pittsburg, 
and is rapidly increasing her production ; Tennessee, old 
Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, have put 
several new furnaces into blast, and are preparing to in- 
crease the number ; Pennsylvanians have just been buy- 
ing Iron mines not only in these States, but even so far 
South as Alabama ; Oregon has been supplying the San 
Francisco market with Charcoal Pig of a good quality ; 
while Illinois (a recent beginner) is making largely at 
Chicago, and Indiana is putting up great furnaces at her 
capital as well as near Greencastle, and boasts the pos- 
session of thousands of square miles of Coal better 
adapted to Iron-making than any other in the known 
world. She confidently counts on making Iron at once 
cheaper and better than the best that Pennsylvania can 
exhibit ; and, while her sanguine expectations will prob- 
ably be sobered by experience, her eifort will doubtless 
exert a wholesome influence on the Nation's prosperity 
and on her own political sanity. ■* If a thousand new 

1 The last effort to render the Tariff more efficiently Protective re- 
ceived no single vote from Indiana in either House. 



OUR NATIONAL DEBT. 245 

furnaces and factories, giving employment, directly or in- 
directly, to Half a Million persons, were to be put in 
operation within the next three years, while Three or 
Four Hundred Millions would thereby be added to our 
annual product of Metals and Fabrics, I am confident 
that our Agricultural Produce would be increased rather 
than diminished in consequence, — that more hands 
would be incited to gi'ow Vegetables and Fruits for the 
new manufacturers than would be withdrawn from grain- 
growing and cotton-raising ; and that the sum total of 
the product of those factories and furnaces would be a 
clear addition to the wealth of oxir country and to the 
elements of comfort enjoyed by the human race. 

Note. — The fact that the planting of Manufactures in a 
district or county uniformly and speedily induces an improved 
system of Agriculture in that district, maj' be verified by any 
observer who travels through our Middle or Southern States 
Throughout most of New England, a pervading sterility or 
ruggedness renders thorough, effective cultivation difficult, if 
not quite impossible. Half a dozen ridges of partially naked 
granite, a dozen knolls or swells of mingled stones, pebl^les, 
and gravel, separated by narrow strips or belts of barely 
arable soil from the wider bogs or marshes, across which lie 
similar strips and ridges, almost defy the power of man to re- 
duce these to spacious and facile fields whereon grain can be 
profitably grown. The face of the country is too seamed and 
patchy for any but a petty, garden-like cultivation. New 
England has of course some rich, inviting glades and inter- 
vales ; but, as a whole, her soil does not favor nor invite a 
generous, scientific cultivation ; and, in spite of her high prices 
for food, most of her grain must henceforth be groAvn on other 
fields than hers. Farther south and west, however, the 
planting of Manufactures in a district is inevitably and speed- 
ily followed by a manifest and palpable increase of Agricul- 
tural production and thrift on every side. 



246 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XVIII. 

WHAT HAS BEEN ELUCIDATING WHAT 
SHALL BE. 

Nothing can be truer than that the Future is mir- 
rored in the Past, so that only a keen, clear, searching 
vision, undistorted by prejudice, unclouded by prepos- 
session, is needed to read aright its lessons and deduce 
their moral. If Protection has hitherto impoverished 
and weakened our country, then it will almost certainly, 
if persisted in, do so hereafter. If our population, pro- 
duction and wealth, are now less than they would 
have been had no impost ever been levied upon foreign 
products at our frontiers with intent to encourage the 
production of like articles on our own soil, or with the 
effect of rendering such encouragement, then it were 
irrational to expect such results from Protective legisla- 
tion in the future. Tennyson aptly makes the sage and 
thoughtful Ulysses say, in the ripe fulness of his event- 
ful, observant career : — 

" I am a part of all that I have met ; 
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough 
Gleams that nntravelled world, whose margin fades 
Forever and forever when I move." 

The Evening Post has fairly earned the position of 
leading exponent and champion of Free Trade in the 
New World. It has won that preeminence ' by courage, 
consistency, and signal ability. It has never trimmed, 
nor prevaricated, nor pretended that the difference be- 
tween Protection and Free Trade is ideal or illusory, nor 
has it permitted considerations of party expediency or 
party success to affect its attitude or muffle its voice. 



THE INFANCY OF PROTECTION. 247 

"The Post has an established character and an honorable 
history ; and, whatever its occasional errors of fact or 
inference, I will not doubt that its course on this sub- 
ject is impelled by conviction and guided by principle. 

In its issue of August 27, The Post, discussing the 
effect of our present Tariff on Wool and Woollens, forci- 
bly says : — 

" The author of the ' Positive Philosophy ' was the first 
writer on modern science to give verification its true place in 
scientific processes. He showed clearly that the test of every 
conclusion in science is prediction ; and that the claim of any 
doctrine to a truly scientific character is its proportion to the 
accuracy with which it enables those who understand it to 
foretell the results under known conditions. Economical 
science accepts the test as fully as Chemistry, and its pro- 
cesses, though never complicated, are, when complete, not a 
whit less trustworthy." 

Concurring fully in this averment, I propose to test 
the soundness of The Post's Political Economy by copy- 
ing from its columns the predictions from time to time 
made by its editors of the deplorable consequences cer- 
tain to result from our country's adhesion to the Pro- 
tective policy, and contrast those doleful prophecies with 
the cheering results actually realized. 

Though Protection to Manufactures had been declared 
in its preamble one of the purposes of the first Tariff 
framed and passed under the Federal Constitution, and 
though Protection had been incidentally regarded and 
affirmed in nearly every modification of that Tariff, and 
though the Tariff of 1816 was made imdeniably and 
stringently Protective in its duties on Cotton Fabrics 
and on some manufactures of Iron, it was not till 
1820-22 that a revision of the Tariff in the interest of 
Protection alone was sought for, and not till 1824 that 
a measure of unqualified Protection passed both Houses, 



248 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and, being approved by the President, became a law of 
the land. The Evening Post, after insisting that manu- 
facturers, alike with farmers, traders, and all other 
classes, were interested in the defeat of this measure, 
proceeded to say :^ ~ — 

" Pass the Tariff, as reported by the Committee, and you 
palsy the nation. Pass it, and where will you any longer 
find occupants for your costly piles of stores and dweUing- 
houses ? Pass it, and who will be exempt from its grinding 
operation ? The poorer classes especially must feel its effect 
in paying an additional price for every article of clothing they 
and their families wear, and every mouthful they eat or 
drink, save cold water ; and to that will they erelong be re- 
duced. If nothing short of the general voice of the people 
will satisfy Congress that they can not and will not submit to 
this report, so pregnant with incalculable mischief, so mis- 
taken and inconsiderate, let means be taken without delay to 
procure it, and it will be given in a tone and manner that 
will not be disregarded." 

The bill so execrated by The Post was passed, in defi- 
ance of its fulminations ; yet the Nation was not pal- 
sied ; our City grew thenceforth as it had never grown 
before, finding ample " occupants for its costly piles of 
stores and dwelling-houses" at higher rates than had 
previously ruled. The " poorer classes " did not (un- 
happily) confine themselves to cold water as a beverage ; 
and, so far was " the general voice of the people " from 
condemning the measure, that the Tariff of 1824 stood 
unchanged until superseded (in 1828) by one decidedly 
higher and more Protective. The " tone and manner " 
of the Free-Traders were as arrogant and conceited as 
usual ; but the great body of the people only laughed at 
their lofty airs, and persisted in calling for the main- 
tenance and increase of Protection. 

1 February 3, 1824. 



MR, COOPER AND C. C. CAMBRELENG. 249 

Two propositions have ever proved stumbling-blocks to 
economists of The Post's school : 1. That the producers 
of Wares or Fabrics may be benefited by Protection, 
though its effect be to reduce rather than enhance the 
price of their products ; 2. That increased Protection 
may secure increased revenue from Duties on Imports. 
Dr. Cooper, then President of South Carolina College, 
was then a leading pamphleteer against Protection, and 
The Post ^ admiringly quoted him with commendations,^ 
as follows : — 

" But it is not against the merchant and agriculturist in those 
specific capacities and characters tliat this monopoly makes war, 
but it is against our national resources, against our revenue also. 
Annihilate, however gradually, your custom-house duties, and 
you must recur to direct taxation or to excise. I have no time 
to dwell on the insuperable objections tliat lie against both 
these measures in tlieir details ; but I would ask what finance 
minister among us will be driven to the one of these execrated 
resources or to the other ? Let the manufacture-monopoly 
speculators succeed, by hardihood of assertion and unbounded 
promise, which they can give no pledge to perform, and I ask 
■where will you find a coiripetent Secretary of the Treasury ? 
I say a-competent one ; for I am persuaded no man of good 
sense will incur the difficulties and the responsibilities of that 
situation under a system of direct taxation, and an army of 
excise officers, unless from an extravagant love of power and 
appointment." 

To the same effect, The Post,^ in printing the speech 
of Mr. Churchill C. Cambreleng, then a Representative 
of our City in the House, paraphrases and indorses his 
views as follows : — 

" Remember, it is stated by our able and faithful represent- 
ative, whose speech is this evening repubhshed, that it ap- 
pears from Treasury documents that, if the purposes of the 
Committee be accomplished and the dreaded measure adopted, 

1 February 4, 1824. 2 February 3, 1824. 3 March 3, 1824. 
11 * 



250 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

a very considerable portion of the revenue connected with 
manufactures, and amounting last year to upward of eight and a 
half millions of dollars, will thereby be extinguished. But the 
Treasury must nevertheless be supplied to the same amount 
from some other source ; and what remains for us but to re- 
sort to direct taxation ? Are you, fellow-citizens, ready for 
that ? Are you prepared for an impending evil like that ? " 

The Post was a faithful follower of its leader and 
teacher. Mr. Cambreleng, in the speech simultaneously 
published by it, had argued that the object of the bill 
was Prohibition, — that it must have that effect or none, 
save a needless and fruitless increase of the public bur- 
dens, — and he proceeds : — 

"According to a statement which I have prepared from 
Treasury documents, it appears that the manufactures de- 
signed to be protected by prohibitory duties yielded, in the 
year ending September 30 last, a revenue of $ 7,337,256 ; 
that other articles, partially manufactured, or forming raw ma- 
terials for manufactures, yielded in the same year $ 918,969, 
and that the agricultural articles yielded $ 278,736; making 
altogether $ 8,529,961 of revenue. 

" It is evident that, if the purposes of the Committee be 
accomplished, a very considerable portion of the revenue must 
be extinguished. In any event, our revenue system will be 
seriously injured by this measure." 

At a City Meeting held to oppose the passage of the 
Tariff, Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck,^ set forth the objects 
proposed, and submitted the resolves, which were unani- 
mously adopted, with the heartfelt, sympathy of The 
Post. Here is the first of them : — 

" Resolved, That it is evident that the measure will be 
deeply injurious to the National Revenue, which, under the 
operation of the existing Tariff, is collected through the Cus- 
toms (nearly one-half at this port alone), at a very small ex- 
pense, and with great punctuality, yielding to the Govern- 

1 March 4, 1824. 



THE REVENUE SWELLED BY PROTECTION. 251 

ment means amply adequate to the National Expenditure, to 
maintain and gradually increase the Navy, sustain a sufficient 
Army, and not only to discharge as it becomes due, but to 
anticipate, the reimbursement of a large amount of the Public 
Debt." 

On no point were the Free-Traders of that day more 
unanimous 'or more vociferous than on this, — that Pro- 
tection to Home Industry must inevitably destroy or 
greatly reduce our Revenue fi'om Duties on Imports, 
and compel a resort to Direct Taxation for the support 
of the Federal Government. This was a catastrophe in- 
cessantly flashed before the eyes of the People, vexing 
the souls of landholders and farmers with a prospect of 
double taxes on their freeholds, rendering it impossi- 
ble to sell or even give them away. And yet the re- 
ceipts from Imports (as I have already shown) were 
$86, .357,852 in the four years following 1824, against 
$64,688,254 for the four years preceding, — a net in- 
crease of more than Twenty Millions of Dollars under 
the Tariff which, according to The Post and its cowork- 
ers, could not fail greatly to diminish the Revenue from 
Imports and compel a resort to Direct Taxes ! 

In 1828 the Tariff was still further increased, and 
rendered still more Protective, in defiance of the dia- 
tribes and doleful prophecies of The Post and its confed- 
erates ; yet the Revenue from Imports was still further 
swelled, during the ensuing four years, to $ 97,294,036, 
— over Thirty-two Millions' excess over the four years 
preceding The Post's and Messrs. Cambreleng and Ver- 
planck's positive assertions that Protection would dry up 
our Revenue from Customs and compel a resort to Direct 
Taxation ! 

The passage of this Tariff was a direct consequence 
of the satisfaction with which the great mass of our 
people regarded the operation and effects of the Tariff 



252 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of 1824. They had tried a measure of moderate but 
uneqiiivocal Protection, and they felt that it had re- 
dounded to their signal advantage and benefit. Labor 
was in more general demand and commanded better 
wages than prior to 1824 ; embryo Patersons and Low- 
ells were springing into existence and activity in differ- 
ent sections, and affording to the farmers convenient 
and eager markets for Fruits, Vegetables, Fuel, &c., &c., 
which would not bear transportation to distant seaports, 
much less to Europe ; prosperity and thrift were gen- 
erally replacing the National collapse and bankruptcy 
which everywhere followed the enormous importations 
of 1815-16; in short, the country felt that Protection 
had drawn it nearly out of a deep slough, and was in- 
clined to double the team. Hence the Tariff of 1828, 
for which there was no pretext of inadequate Revenue 
or unsatisfactory Finances. Its object, avowedly and 
palpably, was Protection alone. 

The Post, originally Federal, was now a Democratic 
organ : that is, it supported General Jackson for Presi- 
dent, and the party in this State whereof Martin Van 
Buren was the chief. He had recently made at Albany 
a speech on the Tariff question which did not clearly 
define his position ; but, when the question came to an 
issue in the Senate, he cast his vote for the bill, as did 
his devoted adherents, — Michael Hoffman, Jonas Earll, 
Silas Wright, Selah R. Hobbie, John Magee, and others, 
— in the House, where the State of New York gave 27 
votes for to 5 against the bill. Pennsylvania, Ohio, In- 
diana, and Kentucky — each about to vote for General 
Jackson as President — gave their every vote for the 
bill ; the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and 
Tennessee, their every vote in the House against it. 
Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire went against 
the bill; Vermont and Connecticut for it. The biU 



LAMENTATIONS OVER THE TARIFF. 253 

passed the House by 105 Yeas to 94 Nays, and the Sen- 
ate by 26 Yeas to 21 Nays. Most of the supporters of 
Mr. Adams's Administration voted for the bill, with a 
majority of the Jackson Democrats from the Free States ; 
the Slave States voted pretty solidly against it, though 
among the votes in the Senate for the bill were those of 
Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, Richard M. Johnson, 
of Kentucky, and John H. Eaton, of Tennessee. 

When the news that this Tariff had passed reached 
Charleston, S. C, the British vessels in port displa^^ed 
their flags at half-mast, — an indecent interference with 
the legislation of an independent country which was re- 
buked even by The Post. At Portland, Maine (as The 
Post quotes from The Easteni Argus), " the bells were 
tolled ; the flags of the shipping were put half-mast 
high ; and processions were formed and marched through 
the town of persons whose daily bread is earned by the 
occupations of Commerce, followed by emblems of sus- 
pended industry and decaying trade," — demonstrations 
which The Argus seeks to use to the prejudice of Mr. 
Adams's reelection, but declares "not confined to any 
political party, nor did they have their origin in party 
considerations. They sprung from a sense of the deep 
and, it may be feared, lasting injury inflicted upon this 
town, and this part of the country." 

The Post fought this bill, both before and after its 
passage, with characteristic vehemence. It quotes ^ with 
approbation, from The New Haven Herald, a prophetic 
declaration that — 

" To the shipping and commercial interests of New Eng- 
land, — and especially to those of Maine, Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut, — it is nearly an act of annihilation, which ^ar- 
alyzes industry, destroys revenue" &c., &c. 

" As was justly remarked by a gentleman from Maryland, 

1 May 21, 1828. 



254 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

' The recklessness with, which this law proposes to scuttle ships 
is only surpassed by the ferocity with which it resolves to 
slaughter sheep! Already was every bolt, rope, and nail, 
used in ship-building, taxed to the utmost farthing that Com- 
merce could bear ; and yet they have gone on inventing new 
sources of imposition." 

The Post, commenting on the above, says : — 

" New England had the benefit of the Tariff of 1824; and 
it is proper that she should bear the burdens of the Tariff of 
1828. Our City, however, bears the burdens of both, without 

sharing the benefits of either The following words 

were seen yesterday chalked upon the walls of our Custom 
House in large letters, — the work, probably, of some anti- 
Tariff wag : ' Tliis House to let. Inquire at Washington.'' " 

The Post asserts ^ that the bill, as reported, " with 
respect to many articles, is equivalent to a non-importa- 
tion act " ; and again ^ : — 

" For our own part, we look upon the bill as a great piece 
of absurdity ; but it at least has the merit of being consistent 
with itself, and of carrying fearlessly into practice the doc- 
trines in favor of which the manufacturers have attempted to 
produce so much excitement. If we must be loaded with 
the Tariff system, we prefer to take the whole at once, in- 
stead of being saddled with its burdens one after another. If 
the whole extent of this evil is felt at once, it will be shaken 
off the sooner by the nation, than if we are accustomed to it 
gradually." 

The Post,^ announcing the passage of the bill to a 
third reading in the Senate, regards its impulse as politi- 
cal (in view of the Presidential election then pending), 
and adds : — 

" It is a melancholy commentary upon the public virtue of 
our legislators that, under these circumstances, they should 
not have yielded to what must have been the convictions of 
their own consciences and understandings, and boldly put a 

1 February 4, 1828, 2 February 13. 8 March 15. 



THE EVENING POST ON THE TARIFF OF 1828. 255 

decided negative on a bill which must so fatally cripple our 
commerce, and bring ruin upon so many individuals now pur- 
suing their occupations under that pledge, which results from 
the nature of a free government, that their rights shall not be 
sacrificed for the emolument of others." 

The bill at length passed,^ and The Post, in a leading 
article thus forecast what it believed must be the conse- 
quences of the measure : — 

" The Tariff bill, as amended by the Senate and published 
in The Evening Post, on Friday last, has now passed the 
House of Representatives, and ere this has probably received 
the signature of the President, and become a law of the land. 
It remains for us to witness its practical effects upon the com- 
merce and revenue of the country, — to see how much Agri- 
culture will be promoted by it, — whether the farmer will be 
enabled to sell his crops of wheat for more money, and 
whether he will not be obliged to pay a larger advance upon 
every article of woollen clothing he purchases, either to the 
importer or the manufacturer. Already, the prices of woollen 
goods have advanced in the market by an amount more than 
equal to the additional duties, which on some descriptions are 
upward of a hundred per cent. We know very well how 
difficult it is to predict witli certainty what will be the opera- 
tion of any bill for the protection, as it is called, of any arti- 
cle produced in our own country. We hesitate not to say, 
however, that the present Tariff act, deeply as it must injure 
the fair and regular commerce of our country, will not be at- 
tended with those advantages to the manufacturers which they 
expect. Take the case of woollens, — suppose the operation 
of the new duties to raise, as was the intention of the makers 
of the act, the price to the consumer. The effect of this will 
be to increase the temptation to illegal trade, and the goods 
will be introduced without duties. This is an element of the 
calculation which the friends of the manufacturers have 
scarcely taken into account, and which it is evident will make 
an immense difference in the result. The improvements 
which have been recently introduced into the manufacture of 

1 March 19, 1828, 



256 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

woollens in Great Britain have surprisingly lessened the cost 
of fabrication, so that the prices of these goods in the Eng- 
lish market ten years ago furnish no criterion whatever for 
judging of their present prices. Here, then, is an article so 
cheap in Great Britain, and so expensive at home, as amply 
to compensate all the risk which the smuggler may incur in 
bringing it into this country, with the aid of the advantages 
afforded by our immense sea-coast and long inland frontier. 
There never has been any lack of enterprise of this sort either 
in this country or in any other, where the inducements held 
out are sufficient, — and this bill, we repeat, offers a most 
splendid temptation to the smuggler. Our country cannot 
enforce the prohibitory system. In order to do it, it would 
be necessary to maintain on our frontier an army of custom- 
house officers, clerks, spies, and runners, large enough, were 
they soldiers, to conquer the British Ameriean provinces. 
The consequence will be, that the law will be evaded, and the 
country will be filled with goods smuggled across the Northern 
and Northeastern boundary. Whatever may be thought of 
the morality of smuggling, it is certain that conscientious 
scruples on this point are never prevalent where much is to 
be gained by it. There are persons enough engaged in com- 
merce who can make the distinction between what is malum 
prohibitum and what is malum in se, with as much acuteness 
and nicety as the most experienced barrister, and who look 
upon the breach of a revenue law as a very different thing 
from a breach of the Ten Commandments. Nor is there any 
lack of ingenuity or activity to carry enterprises of this kind 
into effect. We shall probably have factories established 
along our inland frontier in which Am,erican cloths will be 
manufactured with a magical facility and cheapness and ex- 
cellence of finish, and from whose prolific looms they will be 
distributed all over the Union. Quebec, Montreal, and other 
ports of the British colonies, will become the centre of the 
woollen trade which has been diverted from New York and 
the other ports of the United States ; the fair trader will be 
ruined, and the smuggler encouraged and enriched. 

" In this state of things, what will become of the manufac- 
turer? We may expect similar consequences from the law 



WHOLESALE SMUGGLING ANTICIPATED. 257 

of 1828 to that which followed the law of 1824. The sup- 
posed advantages offered by the bill will induce multitudes to 
invest their capital in the woollen manufacture ; the competi- 
tion will be too great for the business ; and in two years we 
shall hear the same cry of embarrassment, distress, and ruin, 
that we began to hear two years ago. But the competition 
which the manufacturer will have to encounter will not be 
confined to those of his own occupation. There is another 
kind of competition which will never decHne of itself, and 
against which Government cannot protect him, — the compe- 
tition of the smuggler. 

" To show what a munificent temptation the new act holds 
out to the practice of smuggling, a mercantile friend has made 
a computation, by which it appears that, upon its going 
into effect, the saving on two suits of broadcloth made at 
Montreal would be sufficient to defray the expenses of a 
journey from New York to that city. 

" In the mean time, as the bill is to go into operation on 
the 30th of June, great injustice will be done in the case of 
vessels with cargoes of woollen goods purchased before the 
passage of the act, or before receiving news of its passage, 
and which may arrive after the 30th of June. The act con- 
tains no clause remitting the new duties on such cargoes, or 
giving the Secretary of the Treasury any discretion to remit 
them. The cargoes, having been purchased under the idea 
of paying a different set of duties from those now imposed, 
cannot be imported here without a ruinous sacrifice to the 
owners. They must, therefore, be sent at great loss to the 
ports of some other country. Several cargoes, we under- 
stand, have been purchased under these cjrcumstances on ac- 
count of New York owners, and which it is thought will not 
arrive until after the law takes effect." 

" Thus do the legislators of the nation violate those rights 
of property which the letter of the Constitution professes 
sacredly to protect. Men are driven by force of law from 
their regular occupations, undertaken upon the faith of ex- 
isting laws, and a shock has been given to all regular business 
which will be felt throughout the nation. It is difficult to 
describe the indignation Avliich this rash, impolitic, and per- 
nicious measure has excited in this community. While we 



258 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

write this, we are informed that the colors of the shipping in 
this port are displayed at half-mast, in token of mourning for 
this act of national folly. 

" It is but a few years since, that a public meeting of the 
inhabitants of New York was called to afford relief to the 
wretched and starving manufacturers of Great Britain. The 
framers of our laws are now endeavoring to transplant into 
the United States the very system from which arose the evils 
that then so loudly called for sympathy." 

Here it will be seen that The Post, while affirming the 
futility of prediction in general, does yet confidently 
affirm several important and deplorable consequences as 
certain to result from the enactment of the Tariff" of 
1828, in addition to the general prostration of Com- 
merce and diminution of Eeveniie on which it had 
already so often insisted ; viz. : — 

1. The importation especially of "Woollens would pass 
almost entirely out of the hands of duty-paying mer- 
chants into those of duty-evading smugglers, who would 
establish sham factories along the Canada frontier, and 
produce goods with magical facility. 

2. Our manufacturers, thus disappointed in their 
hopes of advantage from the Tariff", would, within two 
years, be clamorous for a further increase of duties. 

3. A sudden and vast increase of our manufacturing 
investments and enterprises was inevitable, which would 
soon afflict us with a " wretched and starving " multi- 
tude of would-be operatives, living from hand to mouth, 
often on the meagre dole of public charity. 

Now, we have alread}^ seen that our Revenue from 
Imports, which had shown an increase of Twenty Mil- 
lions in the foitr years following the adoption of the 
Tariff of 1824, as compared with the four years preced- 
ing, was still farther increased some Eleven Millions in 
the four years following the passage of the Tariff" of 
1828, in which the aggregate exceeded that of a?iy pre- 



OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



259 



ceding four years, if we except 1816, wherein our conn- 
try was so disastrously ilooded with foreign products to 
fill the vacuum induced by our War with Great Britain, 
during which our coast was in good part blockaded and 
our foreign trade nearly arrested. I have also shown 
that our ship-building, instead of having been prostrated 
by this or the preceding Tariff, was actually increased 
under their sway. I propose now to show how our 
legitimate Foreign Commerce was affected by these enact- 
ments, by citing the officially reported totals of Exports 
and Imports prior to and under those Tariffs respec- 
tively : — 



Years. 


XJ. S. Tonnage. 


Total Exports. 


Total Imports. 


1817 . 


. 1,399,912 


$87,671,509 


$ 99,250,000 


1818 . . 


. 1,225,185 


93,281,133 


121,750,000 


1819 . 


. 1,260,751 


70,142,521 


87,125,000 


1820 . . 


. 1,280,167 


69,691,669 


74,450,000 


1821 . 


. 1,298,958 


64,974,382 


62,585,724 


1822 . . 


. 1,324,699 


72,160,281 


83,241,541 


1823 . 


. 1,336,566 


74,699,030 


77,579,267 


1824 . . 


. 1,389,163 


75,986,657 


80,549,007 


1825 . 


. 1,423,112 


99,535,388 


96,340,075 


1826 . . 


. 1,534,191 


77,595,322 


84,974,477 


1827 . 


. 1,620,608 


82,324,827 


79,484,068 


1828 . . 


. 1,741,392 


72,264,686 


88,509,824 


1829 . 


. 1,260,798 


72,358,671 


74,492,527 


1830 . . 


. 1,191,776 


73,849,508 


70,876,920 


1831 . 


. 1,267,847 


81,310,583 


103,191,124 


1832 . . 


. 1,439,450 


87,176,943 


101,029,266 



No returns, within my knowledge, of the declared 
value of Woollen Fabrics imported in those years are ex- 
tant ; but, as our Imports from Great Britain were (and 
are) mainly of Metals, Wares, and Fabrics, whereof the 
home production is protected by the Tariffs of 1824 and 
1828, I compile^ the following aggregates of our Im- 



1 From Pitkins's Statistical View; edition of 1835; p. 266-290. 



260 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

ports of the products of England and Scotland for these 
years, so far as I can find them : — 



Years. 


Declared Value. 


Years. 


Declared Value. 


1821 . 


. $ 24,400,954 


1828 . 


. . $ 32,100,169 


1822 . . 


. . 33,900,263 


1829 . 


. . 24,916,978 


1823 . 


. . 27,387,403 


1830 . , 


. . 24,137,881 


1824 . , 


. . 27,656,442 


1831 . 


. . 43,832,153 


1825 . 


. . 36,100,974 


1832 . . 


. . 36,429,374 


1826 . 


. . 25,458,975 


1833 . 


. . 37,693,544 


1827 . 


. . 29,736,984 







It will be noted that the Wares and Fabrics smuggled 
in through Canada or otherwise are not included in this 
exhibit. 

Now, it is well known that I do not measure the 
growth or thrift of a people by the volume of its ton- 
nage or of its foreign trade. If all our Grain were 
regularly shipped to England, there ground and baked 
into bread, whereof two-thirds were returned for our use, 
we should have more ships and more foreign commerce 
than now, involving a large increase of our Exports and 
Imports, but a diminution of our independence, comfort, 
prosperity, and wealth. I do not hold that Protection 
immediately increased either our Tonnage or our Foreign 
Trade, as I am confident it did increase our Industry, 
our Revenue, and our Wealth. But I cite the official 
returns above to contrast them with the doleful prophe- 
cies of The Evening Post. Of course, whatever foreign 
goods were smuggled in across our Canada or any other 
frontier do not figure in our official totals of annual Im- 
ports, nor did the bulk of them give employment to 
American vessels; while it is probable that there was 
some harder swearing at our Custom-Houses to evade the 
enhanced duties of 1824 and 1&28 than there had been 
under the lower rates prescribed in 1816 ; and this tells 
in favor of The Post and its prophecies ; but it cannot 



MR. CLAY ON THE EFFECTS OF PROTECTION. 261 

save them. Our foreign fabrics were not mainly smug- 
gled in across our frontier under the Taritf of 1828. 
Our Northern border was not dotted with sham factories, 
established to cloak the operations of smugglers by pre- 
tending to fabricate the goods those model Free-Traders 
juggled across the boundary ; our manufacturers were 
not desperate and clamorous for more Protection in 1830 ; 
and our country was not cursed with a wretched and 
starving populace by reason of the Tariif of 1828. In 
short, there is not a single point on which the results 
of that measure were not in glaring contrast with The 
Post's confident and dolorous predictions. 

In 1832 the Tariff was slightly modified adversely to 
Protection, when Mr. Clay, addressing the Senate, truth- 
fully and forcibly said : — 

" Eight years ago it was my painful duty to present to the 
other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the 
general distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet 
remember some of its frightful features. We all know that 
the people were then oppressed and borne down by an enor- 
mous load of debt; that the value of property was at the 
lowest point of depression ; that ruinous sales and sacrifices 
were everywhere made of real estate ; that stop-laws, and 
relief laws, and paper money, were adopted to save the peo- 
ple from impending destruction ; that a deficit in the public 
revenue existed, which compelled G-overnment to seize upon, 
and divert from its legitimate object, the appropriations to the 
sinking fund to redeem the national debt; and that our com- 
merce and navigation were threatened with a complete pa- 
ralysis. In short, Sir, if I were to select any term of seven 
years since the adoption of the present Constitution luhich ex- 
hibited a scene of the most loide-spread dismay and desolation, 
it xvouM he exactly that term of seiien years ivhich immediately 
jn-eceded the establishment of the Tariff of 1824. 

" I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibit- 
ing an imperfect sketch of the existing state of the unpar- 
alleled prosperity of the country. On a general survey, we 



262 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

behold cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of 
the country improved, our people fully and profitably em- 
ployed, and the public countenance exhibiting tranquillity, 
contentment, and happiness. And, if we descend into partic- 
ulars, we have the agreeable contemplation of a people out 
of debt ; land rising slowly in value, but in a secure and sal- 
utary degree ; a ready though not extravagant market for all 
the surplus productions of our industry ; innumerable flocks 
and herds browsing and gambolling on ten thousand hills and 
plains covered with rich and verdant grasses ; our cities ex- 
panded, and whole villages springing up, as it were, by en- 
chantment; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling and 
fully occupied ; the rivers of our interior animated by the 
perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steamboats ; the 
currency sound and abundant ; the public debt of two wars 
nearly redeemed ; and, to crown all, the public treasury over- 
flowing, embarrassing Congress not to find subjects of taxa- 
tion, but to select the objects which shall be liberated from 
the impost. If the term of seven years ■ were to be selected^ of 
the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the 
establishment of their present Constitution^ it would be exactly 
that period of seven years which immediately followed the pas- 
sage of the Tariff of 1824:. 

" This transformation of the condition of the country from 
gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity has been 
mainly the ivorJc of American legislation fostering American 
industry, instead ef allowing it to be controlled by foreign legis- 
lation, cherishing foreign industry. The foes of the American 
System, in 1824, with great boldness and confidence, pre- 
dicted, first, the ruin of the public revenue, and the creation 
of a necessity to resort to direct taxation ; the gentleman 
from South Carolina [G-eneral Hayne], I beheve, thought that 
the Tariff of 1824 would operate a reduction of the revenue 
to the large amount of eight milUons of dollars ; secondly, 
the destruction of our navigation ; thirdly, the desolation of 
commercial cities ; and fourthly, the augmentation of the price 
of objects of consumption, and a further decline in that of the 
articles of our exports. Every prediction which they made 
has failed, utterly failed. Instead of the ruin of the public 



GROWTH OF NEW YORK UNDER PROTECTION. 263 

revenue with which they then sought to deter us from the adop- 
tion of the American system^ we are now threatened with its 
subversion by the vast amount of the public revenue produced 
by that system. As to the desolation of our cities, let us take, 
a,s an example, the condition of the largest and most commer- 
cial of all of them, the great northern capital. I have, in my 
hands, the assessed value of real estate in the City of New 
York, from 1817 to 1831. This value is canvassed, contested, 
scrutinized, and adjudged, by the proper sworn authorities. 
It is, therefore, entitled to full credence. During the first 
term, commencing with 1817 and ending in the year of the 
passage of the Tariff of 1824, the amount of the value of real 
estate was, the first year, $ 57,790,435, and after various 
fluctuations in the intermediate period, it settled down at 
$ 52,019,730, exhibiting a decrease in seven years of $ 5,779,705. 
During the first year of 1825, after the passage of that Tariff, 
it rose, and, gradually ascending throughout the whole of the 
latter period of seven years, it finally, in 1831, reached the 
astonishing height of $ 95,716,485 ! Now, if it be said that 
this rapid growth of the City of New York was the effect of 
foreign commerce, then it was not correctly predicted, in 
1824, that the Tariff would destroy foreign commerce and 
desolate our commercial cities. If, on the contrary, it be the 
effect of internal trade, then internal trade cannot be justly 
chargeable with the evil consequences imputed to it. The 
truth is, it is the joint effect of both principles : the domestic 
industry nourishing the foreign trade^ and the foreign commerce 
in turn nourishing the domestic industry. Nowhere more 
than in New York is the combination of both principles so 
completely developed." 

The Post, having been recently transformed, from a 
life-long, imbittered adversary, into an admiring eulogist 
of Mr. Clay, and having claimed him as a convert, about 
18-32, to its Economic views, I submit the above testi- 
mony to the magical beneficence of the Tariffs of 1824 
and 1828, in the assurance that neither its pertinence 
nor its cogency can well be gainsaid. 



264 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XIX. 

TAXATION, DIEECT AND INDIRECT. 

Direct Taxation has been defined as that which must 
be borne by him who immediately pays it ; while that 
which he may charge over upon others is distinguished -^ 
as indirect. Thus, Duties on Imports are regarded as 
indirect, because most articles imported are imported for 
sale, and but a small proportion — probably not more 

1 M. Thiers, in his terse, vigorous essay on " The Eights of Prop- 
erty; in Refutation of Communism and Socialism," says: — 

" We may imagine another kind of tax, which, laying hold of all 
articles of consumption on their passage, such as food, clothing, arti- 
cles of luxury, and raw material, is thus confounded with and added 
to the price of the articles. This tax, called indirect, to distinguish it 
from the other, has a very great advantage over it, — it is that of taking 
its proper place by adding itself to the price of produce, of which the 
tax should evidently form a part; for, as the expense of insurance 
against shipwreck should be included in the price of sea-borne mer- 
chandise, so the cost of its social protection ought to become an inte- 
gral part of the price of these productions. Hence it follows that the 
tax, being confounded with the price of the goods in the market, is 
paid successively, insensibly, by slow degi-ees ; so that the tax-payer, 
who generally has little foresight, is not obliged to think of the tax- 
gatherer as he thinks of his landlord, and it happens that, while paying 
his daily expenses, he pays at the same time his share of the public 
charges. Moreover, the tax is voluntary on his part ; for he can re- 
trench his expenditure if he thinks he cannot meet it, and then he pays 
only what taxes he pleases, and in proportion to the enjoyment in 
which he indulges. This tax is the most equitable also; for the rich 
man, who consumes more of the social productions, pays a greater 
share of their cost of protection ; and he who, from prudence, econ- 
omy, or poverty, abstains from them, is relieved from paying a part of 
the public expense, in pi'oportion to his abstinence. This indirect tax 
is therefore insensible, infinitely divided, pnident for the payer who 
is not so, and in general more just." 



TAXATION, DIKECT AND INDIRECT. 265 

than one per cent. — are bought abroad by those who 
are to use or consume them in the country to which 
they are sent. On the other hand, not only a poll-tax 
and an income-tax, but any tax on lands or other fixed 
property, is held to be direct, because the owner of lands 
or houses cannot add the tax to the price of the property 
in selling it ; indeed, the buyer, in estimating the value 
of the property, is quite at liberty to treat the tax as an 
encumbrance or quit-rent, and deduct it from the rental 
or income in estimating the value of the estate and fix- 
ing the price he will pay for it. I conform to the popu- 
lar distinction without here inquiring into its justice. 

It has been very generally assumed that Direct Taxes 
are preferable to Indirect, in that they are more sensibly 
felt by the public, and thus induce a more vigilant scru- 
tiny of appropriations, expenditures, and schemes in- 
volving the use or investment of public money. Super- 
ficially regarded, the truth of this proposition may seem 
self-evident. I, however, accustomed to scrutinize spe- 
cious generalizations and look smooth plausibilities square 
in the face, challenge its correctness, and submit a sum- 
mary of facts bearing thereon, which are quite within 
the scope of current popular observation. 

The City of New York is (I think) as corruptly, prodi- 
gally ruled as any other twenty square miles of the earth's 
surface ; or, if there be an exception, it is presented by 
her gigantic suburb, Brooklyn. Yet nearly every dollar 
of the Twenty-odd Millions annually drawn from her 
treasury, mainly for Municipal uses, is derived from her 
citizens by what is distinguished as Direct Taxation, — a 
mere shred of the vast aggregate being obtained from 
licenses, market-stands, &c., &c. The personal property 
of non-residents may possibly supply a tenth of the 
total, though I judge that a twentieth would be nearer 
the truth ; the residue is taxed upon lands and struc- 

12 



266 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

tures at the rate of $ 50 to $ 4,000 per lot of 25 feet by 
100, with the buildings, building, or part of a building, 
standing thereon. And, as nearly all of us sleep under 
some sort of roof, — at all events, sink to rest on some 
sort of lot, — this mode of taxation would seem not 
only direct but all-embracing. And, as all adult male 
citizens are legal voters, a few thousand negroes excepted, 
Direct Taxation ought here to exhibit its natural fruits. 
But, when we look a little closer into the matter, we 
find that our City has not less than One Hundred and 
Twenty-five Thousand Legal Voters (to say nothing of 
the Illegal), of whose names less than one-fifth appear 
upon her tax-Hsts. If the vast majority are made to 
bear the burden of Municipal prodigality, it reaches them 
so circuitously and unobservedly, in the shape of in- 
creased rents and enhanced charges for board and lodg- 
ing, that they fail to trace the effect to this particular 
cause. Nay, such of them as are sharp enough to look 
into the subject at all perceive that, while Rent and 
Board are apt to advance far oftener than they react, 
there is no necessary, or, at all events, no immediate, con- 
nection between the increase of our Municipal burdens 
and the inevitable cost of living here : that taxes may 
be enhanced this year, while rents rise the next, and vice 
versa ; so that the voter does not generally feel that adding 
$ 50 per family to the cost of our City's government will 
add % 50, or even % 5, to the necessary or probable cost 
of sheltering and subsisting his family. On the other 
hand, there are thousands who make themselves busy 
and useful as Ward politicians to the dominant power 
here who shrewdly calculate that, if some Millions more 
are spent per annum in oiling and running the Municipal 
machine, there will be chances for such as they to re- 
ceive somewhat of the greasy dripping. Hence, in sev- 
eral of our Wards, mainly owned by non-residents and 



TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT. 267 

peopled by poor and unthrifty tenants, I firmly believe 
that a candidate for Alderman known to belong to the 
Municipal " King," and to favor " big things " in the way 
of sti-eet-opening, grading, paving, Ac, &c-, especially if 
understood further to be liberal to " the boys," and ready 
to give and take, woiild run better, and be more certain 
of election, than one of identical politics but of old-fash- 
ioned notions of public economy and official responsi- 
bility. 

All this, you say, only proves that what is called Direct 
Taxation is misnamed. Possibly ; but does it not prove 
much more than that '? Does it not prove the distinc- 
tion between Direct and Indirect Taxation illusory and 
non-practical ] An excise or octroi duty of fifty cents 
per pound on Tobacco would conie straight heme to the 
business and bosoms of seven-eighths of our voters, — 
would incite them to look sharply about them to see 
why that tax was imposed, and by what means it may be 
abated; whereas an additional tax of $50 per house would 
be regarded by most of them as an affair of the land- 
lord's, in which they had but a remote if not purely ideal 
or sentimental concern. If, then, the current discrimi- 
nation of Direct from Indirect Taxes be connect, I main- 
tain that those termed Indirect are most likely to be 
felt, scrutinized, and criticised, by the great body of our 
people. 

Of late, some speculative economists have favored what 
is called Progi-essive Taxation, — that is, an exaction of 
one mill per $ 100 from all whose taxable property is val- 
ued at less than $ 1,000 ; two mills per $ 100 from those 
who have over $1,000, but less than $5,000; three 
mills from those who have over $ 5,000, but less than 
$ 10,000 ; four mills per $ 100 from those who have over 
$ 10,000, but less than $ 20,000 ; and so on, until he 
who has $ 1,000,000 shall be required to pay two or 



i268 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

three per cent., and he who has $ 10,000,000 or over a 
still higher rate. Incidentally, such a system of taxa- 
tion might prove beneficent, by inducing great capitalists 
to divide much of their property among their natural 
heirs without awaiting the intervention of death. An- 
other inevitable efiect — that of inducing a majority of 
the legal voters to authorize large expenditures for pub- 
lic enterprises of questionable profit — I could not re: 
gard with complacency. Already, the rule -^ that Prop- 
erty must pay for all has been pushed beyond its proper 
limitations. In our late Civil War, the old-fashioned 
conception that a citizen owes as a citizen a duty to his 
coimtry, was very generally repudiated. Individuals — • 
very many of them — volunteered as a dictate, not of 
choice, but of duty, and many a mother sent her only 

1 M. Thiers deals with the proposition that all taxes should be levied 
upon Property, none upon Labor, thus conclusively : — 

" Taxation must, therefore, be proportionate to each one's means ; 
and by means we must understand not only what each man earns, but 
what he possesses. Thus the individual, protected in his labor by him 
who mounts guard, or judges, or governs, is protected not only in his 
personal labor, but in the accumulated labor of his parents, converted 
into land, houses, or furniture. All that represents, say an income of 
ten, twenty, or a hundred francs a day. This is preserved for him ; 
and he must pay some remuneration for the protection of wealth pre- 
viously acquired as well as for that acquired every day. Taxation, 
then, must be according to the income from his wealth, whether 
bequeathed or acquired. This is what is meant by the proportional- 
ity of taxation. 

" But, in like manner, as you owe one part of the tax for the prop- 
erty you possess and the social protection guaranteed to you, so you 
owe another for your labor in proportion to the profits of that labor. 
Any plan for exempting labor would be as unreasonable as exempting 
property. All that is placed under the social protection owes a pro- 
portionate return. If you save me daily ten francs of ray income, or 
ten francs of my wages, I owe you a remuneration in proportion to 
those ten francs. The principle, as in an insurance company, is to pay 
the tax in proportion to the value guaranteed, whatever may be the 
nature of that value. The argument which some might endeavor to 
oppose to this truth would be, that property is wealth and labor pov- 
erty; and in that case there would be an apparent reason founded on 
the interest which poverty inspires, and the little favor inspired by 



TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT. 269 

son to the battle-field when she would gladly have ran- 
somed him from the service with all her worldly posses- 
sions. The gi-eat majority, however, of those perfectly 
willing to fight, awaited the offer of liberal bounties be- 
fore volunteering ; virtually assuming that the duty of 
upholding the Nation's integrity and authority devolved 
ou Property alone. 

For some years, a lively fusillade of discussion has 
been maintained in our party journals with regard to the 
comparative facility of earning a livelihood now and ten 
years ago, or prior to the signal changes in prices and 
current values effected by our great Civil War. Many 
facts have been aptly and forcibly adduced on either side, 
as many more may and doubtless will be ; but the great, 
controlling consideration that our public burdens have 

wealth. But the allegation is utterly false, and therefore the interest 
unreasonably inspired perishes with the allegation. 

"If thei-e is a rich property, there is also a poor property; and, if 
there is a poor labor, tliere is also a rich labor. F"or instance : here is a 
wretched peasant who, by toiling all his life, has acquired an acre of 
land, which, by dint of labor, returns him two or three hundred francs; 
and on it he lives to the close of his days. This is poor property, and 
perhaps the most general. Here is an old servant and an aged clerk, 
modestly ending their lives with an income formed by their savings. 
That is also poor property, as general as the former. I will next ad- 
duce the case of a merchant, a barrister, a physician, or a banker, 
earning theij- twenty, thirty, or a hundred thousand francs a year, and 
sometimes a million. That is rich labor, and labor by no means rare, 
except the last, which is seldom met with. And you would tax him 
whom the protection of society seciires in the enjoyment of the thi-ee 
or four hundred francs composing the maintenance of his old age, that 
you may exempt him who is indebted to the same protection for the 
means of earning ten, twenty, or a hundred thousand francs a year! 
In taxing property and labor, we look not more to wealth than to pov- 
erty. We look to both, because there is a poor property as well as a 
rich labor. The observation of facts thus accords with justice in es- 
tablishing that every man is indebted to society, whatever it may be 
that is guaranteed, — be it wealth acquired formerly, or wealth acquired 
recently; be it old labor or new: that the tax should fall on every kind 
of labor without exception for all are indebted to society for the means 
of production, whatever may be their nature and origin." — The 
Rights of Property, &c., p. 229. 



270 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

been enormously and inevitably augmented by the cost of 
that War, does not seem to have received due emphasis 
from either side. Over and above the patriotic contribu- 
tions and services freely proffered and the taxes paid dur- 
ing the War, the Government and the loyal States, with 
their several Counties, Cities, and Townships, incurred 
debts in raising, equipping, paying, and subsisting, armed 
forces to the extent of not less than Four Thousand Mil- 
lions of Dollars. Of these, nearly or quite One Thousand 
Millions have already been paid oft' from the proceeds of 
one or another form of taxation, or at the rate of about 
Two Hundred Millions per annum, while the interest on 
the entire volume of indebtedness has averaged an equal 
amount. He who supposes that this vast load can be 
borne by Forty Millions of people without feeling it, or 
that it could by possibility be wholly strapped to the 
shoulders of a small part of their number, evinces but a 
shallow acquaintance with the nature and laws of taxa- 
tion. Had the poorer three-fifths of our voters been 
firmly combined in a determined effort to fasten the en- 
tire load on the more wealthy two-fifths, I believe suc- 
cess in their effort absolutely unattainable, unless by 
direct confiscation and spoliation, if even thus. A Gov- 
ernment may stipulate that its bonds or other certificates 
of indebtedness shall be exempt from taxation, and keep 
faith with its creditors to the best of its ability ; but 
taxation in some form — Income, Excise, or Tariff" — will 
reach and toll property, however carefully screened. To 
off'er a non-taxable bond . is simply to collect the tax in 
advance ; and even that cannot protect from its re-impo- 
sition and re-collection in various unnoted ways. Nor do 
I suppose that Labor can escape taxation, however ear- 
nest and able the efforts to screen it. Hence, without 
deciding that it is or is not harder in the average to 
earn a livelihood in this country to-day than it was be- 



TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT. 271 

fore Secession, I am confident that it is harder than it 
would have been at this time had there interposed no 
Secession and no destructive, exhausting Civil Wai*. 

Our modern Free-Traders are accustomed to reiterate 
protestations of their acquiescence in the rightfulness 
and good policy of raising revenue by means of a tariff 
of duties on imports. In so doing, they placate hostility 
at the expense of consistency. For, if it be true, as 
they assert, that a duty on imported wares or fabrics 
raises arbitrarily, by the amount of its exaction, the cost 
to consumers, not only of the articles imported under 
such tariff, but of the domestic products which are sold 
in competition therewith, then any tariff at all is an op- 
pressive mistake and injustice. Suppose pig iron to be 
the article taxed, and its natural, legitimate price in this 
port to be $ 25 (gold) per ton, at which importers and 
domestic producers are alike doing fairly, under a sys- 
tem of absolute free trade. But a tariff is imposed 
for revenue purely, and a duty of $ 5 per ton imposed 
thereby on imported pig iron. The price rises at once, 
according to the Free Trade theory, to $ 30 or over ; so 
that the importer transfers the whole burden to the 
consumer. But the home-made iron, which is twice or 
thrice the amount imported, is also enhanced in price, 
equally with the imported ; and the $ 5 per ton thus 
taken from the consumer's pocket is paid, not into the 
Treasury, but into the pocket of the producer ; being so 
much unjustly taken from another and given him by the 
force of law. Such is the Free-Traders' representation 
of the necessary effect of their kind of tariff. It is not 
mine. 

The superiority I claim for taxation by Tariff or Du- 
ties on Imports over any and all modes of taxing com- 
mended as Direct, is this : Taxation by Tariflt" involves 
and insures a compensating advantage to the great body 



272 rOLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of our tax-payers, in that it strongly tends to encourage 
the planting of' new industries, the naturalization of new 
departments of prodxictive labor, on our soil, and the 
consequent opening to hundreds of thousands of oppor- 
tunities for earning a livelihood superior to, and more 
acceptable than, any which they would else have enjoyed. 
Our present taxes on foreign-made Sugar and Molasses 
were imposed for revenue purely, — for no Sugar-making 
Interest was potent in the National councils at the time, 
— but its effect has none the less been to rapidly re- 
vive and generously recompense the Cane-Sugar culture 
of Loiiisiana, beside invigorating the Maple Sugar and 
Sorghum Syrup industry of the North, largely increasing 
its product, and giving encouragement to the spirited 
efforts of a few sanguine farmers to transplant to our 
soil a scion from the thrifty Beet Sugar industry of 
France and Germany. So our present high duty on im- 
ported Teas, rendered necessary by the heavy burdens 
of War, and imposed with an eye to Revenue purely, 
without a thought of Protection, bids fair to incite and 
cherish kindred attempts to naturalize the Tea-culture 
on our Pacific coast and in the valleys of East Tennes- 
see, of Cherokee Georgia, and the Carolinas. It is too 
soon, as yet, to predict with confidence that these at- 
tempts, or any of them, are destined to succeed, but not 
too soon to hope that such may be the case, and that 
the lapse of a few years may witness the firm establish- 
ment and rapid expansion of Tea-culture in different 
parts of our country, enlarging the demand for, and in- 
creasing the recompense of, Women's and Children's 
labor among us, while profferitig them an employment 
adapted to their inferior strength and superior delicacy 
of touch, increasing the aggregate productiveness of our 
National Industry, and elevating the average condition 
of our people. 



COOPERATION. 273 



XX. 

COOPERATION. 

Though I have already ^ considered and commended 
Cooperation in Industry as the natural sequence or con- 
tinuation of the progress already made in superseding or 
supplanting Slavery by Wages, the change meditated is 
so important, and in my view so inevitable, while it lies 
directly on the way to the goal I contemplate, that I am 
impelled to give it further elucidation. I shall not at- 
tempt to answer all conceivable objections nor silence 
cavil, but simply to show what Cooperation is and pur- 
poses. I will consider it first with reference to Com- 
merce or Distribution, 

The present century has witnessed vast progress in 
almost every department of material production. To- 
day, far more land is ploughed, by a ceilain expenditure 
or outlay of human eflfbrt, and ploughed better, than by 
our grandfathers ; a girl of fifteen, guiding a span of 
horses, can mow grass faster and better than five men 
could cut it by hand ; our steel ploughs, cultivators, reap- 
ers, horse-rakes, &c., &c,, have combined to render farm 
labor less rugged and exacting, while far more efl&cient, 
more productive, than formerly. To say that an average 
day's work produces twice the food or fibre and thrice 
the cloth or ware that it did a centiiry ago, would be to 
keep quite within the truth. 

But, while Production has thus been increased by the 
invention or adoption of machinery which renders Labor 
more effective, no corresponding improvement has been 

1 See Essay VI. 
12* K 



274 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

wrought in the usual machinery of Distribution. Traffic, 
through all its- multiform ramifications, is continuallj' 
sucking the life-blood of Industry. The machinery 
whereby Vegetables and Fruits (for example) are col- 
lected from the farms and gardens of their producers, 
and supplied to the consuming artisans and laborers in 
the adjacent cities and villages, is nearly as rude and 
quite as expensive as it was in the days of Homer or 
of the elder Pharaohs. The fishermen by whose efforts 
8ind exposure New York is supplied with the products 
of the ocean receive but dimes for their " catch " where 
the consumers pay dollars ; the berries from the Jersey 
barrens, for which the pickers receive ten cents or less 
per quart, are retailed to our citizens for thirty ; the 
turnips, for which the farmer of Westchester County 
with difficulty finds a purchaser at a dollar per barrel, 
are commonly sold by our hucksters at twenty-five cents 
the half-peck, or at the rate of* six to seven dollars per 
barrel ; and the apples which bring the farmer two dol^ 
lars per barrel cost the city mechanic forty miles away 
many times that sum. And so throughout the wide 
range of perishable food. 

I write in the fulness of a Peach-harvest of extraor- 
dinary abundance. Peaches were never before at once 
so plentiful and so good. The growers throughout our 
country (and they abound and flourish everywhere 
south of latitude 40° on our Atlantic and 49° on our 
Pacific coast) will hardly realize an average of twenty- 
five cents per bushel ; while immense quantities must 
be fed to animals or left to rot under the trees that bore 
them. This City is a great, if not the greatest, empo- 
rium of the Peach-trade, and is not far from the great 
Peach-orchards of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, 
wherewith it is connected by many lines of steamboats, 
railroads, &c. Yet, while the growers have been con- 



COOPERATION. 275 

strained by their abundance to sell Peaches at a low 
figure, and often at prices which left them nothing after 
defraying the cost of transportation and marketing, the 
consumers have paid for them an average of not less 
than two dollars per bushel. So imperfect is yet the 
machinery of distribution that, though the swine of the 
producing farmers have eaten peaches to satiety, our 
City's Laboring Poor could rarely afford to let their 
children eat once their fill of good, sound ones. It 
would seem that here is room for improvement, and 
that the wisdom of the Nineteenth Century should be 
equal to effecting it. 

Mr. Parke Godwin, an eminent apostle of Free Trade, 
in his ingenuous youth WTote ^ thus pertinently and 
forcibly : — 

" Commerce is designed to bring the producer and consumer 
into relation; that is, if it has any object. But in itself it 
produces nothing ; it adds nothing to the commodities which 
it circulates. It is obviously, then, for the general interest to 
reduce commercial agents to the smallest number, and to 
carry over the excess to some productive employment. 

" In our societies, precisely the contrary takes place ; the 
agents of Commerce are multiplied beyond measure ; designed 
only to play a subordinate part, they have usurped the highest 
rank ; they absorb the largest portion of the common divi- 
dend, out of all manner of proportion to the services they 
render ; they hold the producer in a servile dependence ; they 
reduce to its lowest terms the wages of workmen ; and they 
extort from the consumer without mercy. 

" Blind competition, so much boasted of by the political 
economists, has largely contributed to the evil. Traffickers, 
in consequence of it, give themselves up to a regular war 
against each other ; and, in order that they may not be 
beaten, they are ready to resort to any expedient. They 
lie, cheat, and falsify products ; they adulterate grains, meats, 

1 A Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier. Redfield : 
New York, 1844. 



276 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

wines, and sugars ; they would poison the community, if they 
dared, as we have recently seen in one or two instances ; and 
they spoliate the public in a thousand modes, by exchange, 
brokerage, usury, bankruptcy ; in short, they deceive in every 
way, and defraud at all seasons; yet commerce, in our cor- 
rupted societies, is the most certain way of arriving at fortune, 
honor, and distinction. 

■' We speak here only of intermediate commerce, by which 
we mean the commerce which- consists in buying from one in 
order to sell to another. The manufacturer and the mechanic 
belong to the class of productive laborers, although their func- 
tions are often complicated with the character and vices of 
commerce, strictly speaking. 

" We know very well that Humanity must employ a por- 
tion of its force in the transportation of products, in order to 
bring them within reach of the consumer. But it is evident 
that it ought to devote to this task only the force that is 
rigorously necessary ; every expenditure of time or money, 
beyond this minimum, being a real loss for society." 

The true distinction is here taken : Commerce is es- 
sential, since each cannot advantageously produce all 
that is required to satisfy his wants ; but it is not neces- 
sary nor desirable that Commerce should appropriate the 
grist and leave only the toll to Production. We must 
have men employed in exchanging the products of Agri- 
culture for those of Manufactures ; but a regiment would 
sufiSce where we now employ an army ; and we must 
devise the means of dispensing with the army, — or 
rather, of dismissing it from Trade to Industry, and 
making the regiment serve in its stead. Such is the 
end contemplated by Cooperation in Trade. 

An average rural township, of thirty to forty square 
miles in area, inhabited by some four hundred families 
of two to ten persons each, whereof three-fourths are 
engaged in Agriculture, is probably as free from para- 
sites, or unproductive consumers of wealth, as so many 
people weU can be under the system which Cooperation 



COOPERATION. 277 

is designed to supplant. It has fewer idlers or paupers 
than so many people are obliged to support in almost 
any other civilized country than ours, or in any other 
than an agricultural community. Yet this township 
supports from four to ten " stores," partly located within 
and partly outside of its boundaries, and pays a profit 
of ten to forty per cent, on whatever it does not produce, 
but buys from abroad. Searching inquiry will establish 
that a full eighth of the gross product of that township 
is paid out as mercantile profit on the goods it imports 
for its people's consumption. 

Why need it pay so much 1 Why should it support 
several families on the profits of its trade, when one man 
could make purchases of the groceries, wares, and fab- 
rics, it needs, and distribute them to better advantage 
than a dozen can 1 Of course, if it employs the dozen, 
it must pay them : it w^ere absurd to raise a clamor 
against traders as cormorants. They are no more at 
fault than was the "great wheel" or "little wheel" 
which the spinning-jenny has superseded. But may not 
the people of that township devise some means of em- 
ploying one man instead of seven to supply them with 
the goods they need, and thus effect their exchanges at 
an average cost of five per cent, instead of twenty ] In 
a manufacturing village or city ward, the waste is greater, 
because few consume their own products to any extent, 
and the volume of exchanges is therefore heavier, while 
the charge for house-rent, clerk-hire, &c., is far higher. 
It is quite within the truth to estimate that one-fourth 
of the earnings of the poor in cities is absorbed by the 
profits of retail trade ; and mainly of the trade in what 
they eat and drink. Need I stop to demonstrate that 
this enormous exaction operates as a diminution of their 
wages or earnings to that extent, so that twenty dollars 
per week to a city mechanic is no more than fifteen dol- 



278 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

lars would be if the machinery of distribution were so 
perfected that he could obtain the necessaries of life at 
their lowest cost 1 

Happily, the whole matter has passed beyond the do 
main of hypothesis or speculation. We are saved from 
contention as to what might be by a knowledge of what 
positively is. Galileo's constrained abjuration of the 
true theory of planetary motion did not aftect the mo- 
mentum of the smallest asteroid ; and a thousand spe- 
cious arguments, designed to prove Cooperation illusory 
and impracticable, are demolished by the simple fact 
that Cooperation is no untried theory, but a subsisting 
and unquestionable fact. 

Twenty-six years have nearly passed since a dozen, 
poor, humble, ignorant weavers met in the back room of 
a mean tavern at Rochdale, — a manufacturing village 
of British North Lancashire, — to devise the ways and 
means of improving their condition. The political agi- 
tations of the time had reached them, and Chartism, 
Free Trade, &c., were doubtless discussed, as were 
Strikes and the kindred enginery of Trades Unions. 
The larger number of the little company could not feel 
that any decided, practical good was likely to be real- 
ized from any or all of these devices. At length, one 
of them spoke to this effect : " If we cannot command 
higher wages, our best coiu-se is to try to make our pres- 
ent earnings go further than they now do. In this age, 
every great enterprise is prosecuted by combinations or 
companies. Thus railroads are constructed, canals dug, 
and many things achieved that would else be impossible. 
Let us imitate the projectors of these works, on the 
small scale dictated by our scanty means, by combining 
to buy at wholesale the necessaries of life." After dis- 
cussion, the suggestion was approved, and an attempt to 
reduce it to practice resolved on. 



COOPERATION. 279 

A basis of organization for " The Rochdale Society of 
Equitable Pioneers " was forthwith drawn up, and signed 
by each of those present, who were to pay twenty pence 
per week into the common fund of the association to 
form a working capital. Only a part were able to do 
this on the instant ; and a year was thenceforth spent in 
accumulating a cash capital of £ 28 (or $ 140) whei-e- 
with to launch the new store. Meantime, their number 
had increased to twenty-eight, and they had hired and 
rudely fitted up a building in Toad Lane for their store ; 
which was duly opened, in presence of the assembled 
associates and their families, on the evening of December 
21, 1844. Rent and fitting up had absorbed nearly half 
their capital; so that barely seventy-five dollars remained 
for investment in those prime necessaries, Flom-, Butter, 
Sugar. As they coidd not afford clerk-hire, their store was 
opened in the evenings only ; the members by turns wait- 
ing upon purchasers. Scoffers and sceptics stood around 
to hoot and jeer ; but the " Pioneers " minded their own 
business and let the heathen rage. Such was the hum- 
ble beginning of an association of workers for scanty 
wages, which has ever since been in prosjDerous activity, 
and which has grown, in the course of a quarter of a 
centur}^, into a company of sixty-seven thousand mem- 
bers, wielding a capital of four to five hundred thousand 
dollars, and doing business annually to a far larger 
amount, — buying grain by the cargo, to be ground in 
their mill and sold to members and customers as flour 
or as bread ; while cattle are likewise bought by it in 
scores, slaughtered, cut up, and sold out as required. A 
clothing store, a dry-goods store, three shoe-stores, and 
five meat-shops, besides a magnificent central warehouse, 
are among the structures owned and used by the Pioneers, 
whose library of five thousand well-chosen volumes and 
reading-room supplied with the best newspapers are free 



280 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

to the members and their families, — two and a half per 
cent, of the profits of the business being devoted to 
educational uses. To buy only the most substantial and 
serviceable fabrics ; to offer no adulterated or inferior 
article ; to buy and sell for cash only ; to charge moder- 
ate prices ; and to divide all profits equitably among the 
members, — such are the cardinal principles propounded 
and lived up to by the Equitable Pioneers, of whose do- 
ings an eye-witness writes : ^ — 

" Let us glance at the manner of doing business at the coop- 
erative store. The shop is open all day, but is most frequented 
in the evening, being generally crowded on the Saturday 
night. As everything has to be paid for in ready money, all pur- 
chasers must, of course, bring their cash with them. Wliat- 
ever be the amount a customer lays out, he or she receives a 
tin ticket, on which is stamped the sum paid, — such tickets 
being vouchers for the receipt of tlie money. The buyer 
preserves these tickets until the expiration of the current 
quarter, when he brings them to the store, and, for whatever 
amount of them he can produce, he is entitled to a propor- 
tionate share of the profits of the concern during the quar- 
ter. The whole of his purchases in the time may amount, 
perhaps, to five or six pounds; if the profits average ten per 
cent., he would be entitled to ten or twelve shillings ; and he 
might either receive th'b money in cash, or have the same 
transferred to his account credit in his pass-book, in which 
case it would go to increase the deposit on which he receives 
interest. The shop being open to the public, and the tin 
tickets being issued to all customers alike, non-members are 
in the 'habit of disposing of them to members, who are 
credited for their value on producing them." 

The signal success thus achieved at Rochdale has 
prompted many imitations, not only in Great Britain but 
on the Continent ; while in this country " Union Stores " 
were started* quite as early as 1844. Some of these 

i People's Magazine, February, 1867. 



COOPERATION. 281 

have prospered, and greatly benefited their founders and 
the community ; others have been mismanaged, tlirough 
incompetency or rascahty, have fallen into bankruptcy, 
and vanished from otF the face of the earth. Coopera- 
tion is no proof against roguery, as many a bank can 
bear witness ; and the cooperative store which seeks or 
desires credit is morally certain to be ah-eady well ad- 
vanced on the road to ruin. For of the essence of Co- 
operation is Cash Payment ; and a concern which buys 
on credit will naturally sell on credit ; thus dooming 
itself and its members to flounder in a quag-mire of em- 
barrassment and to work evermore for "dead horse." 
Such a concern will soon be deserted by its indebted 
members, who will set off" for the ends of the earth, 
leaving their more thrifty associates to struggle vainly 
against a flood-tide of adversity which must ultimately 
bear them down, leaving the concern to be wound up by 
the sheriff" and sold out by his auctioneer. Debt, for 
goods had and disposed of, will, nine times in ten, prove 
fatal to any form of Cooperation. 

On the other hand, tlie habits of thrift, economy, 
foresight, calculation, which the conduct of a Coopera- 
tive Store involves and requires, eannot fail to prove of 
signal and permanent advantage to its members. They 
are first constrained to save, in order to start their store 
on the humblest scale ; and to many of them the knowl- 
edge that they can save is novel and beneficent. If the 
Rochdale Pioneers have this day Half a Million Dollars 
invested in their business, — that is, Half a Million Dol- 
lars' worth of ground, buildings, wheat, flour, coal, cattle, 
meats, dry goods, gi'oceries, &c., which they jointly 
own, — it is quite probable that they individually have 
more property outside of the company than they would 
this day have had in the absence of any such enterprise. 
I believe it may be fairly computed, therefore, tiiat Co- 



282 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

operation, in the single instance of the Rochdale Pio- 
neers, has not only increased by at least Half a Million 
Dollars the wealth of mankind, but has assigned that 
wealth to a class at once needy and deserving. And the 
habit of saving, the appetite for thrift, is of even greater 
value than its already realized results. 

What has been done may be done again, and doubtless 
will be. There are hundreds of Cooperative Stores now 
in operation ; some will fail, as some have failed already ; 
while the greater number will attain no such importance 
and achieve no such conspicuous and brilliant success 
as has crowned the efforts of the dozen poor weavers in 
Toad Lane, Rochdale. But scores have already achieved 
a success as complete as that of the Equitable Pioneers, 
and are now in the full fruition of their well-won tri- 
umph. Failures and successes are alike instructive, as 
the beacon which tells of quicksands or sunken rocks is 
as essential to the mariner as the light-house which 
guides him to his haven. It is entirely practicable for 
our industrious poor to diminish sensibly their weekly 
expenses by means of Cooperative Stores ; if they can- 
not trust each other, or if they shrink from bestowing 
the care and foresight required, it is hot because they 
are incompetent or consciously depraved, b\it because 
the recompense of labor is more liberal here than in the 
Old World, and the necessity for planning and scheming 
to save sixpences, and make each dollar go as far as pos- 
sible, is consequently less urgent in America than in 
Europe. 

As one main object — indeed, the chief end of a true 
Political Economy — is, in my view, the extensive con- 
version or transmutation of superfluous exchangers of 
products into actual producers of wealth, so that, in 
place of sixty producers and forty exchangers and para- 
sites of one species or another, there shall be at least 



COOPERATION. 283 

ninety producers in every hundred persons who gain or 
seek a livehhood by their own exertions, successful Coop- 
eration commends itself as the natural complement of Pro- 
tection. Each in a distinct sphere coworks with the other 
to achieve a signal and general good. Protection dis- 
penses with long and perilous voyages and the costly 
movement of bulky raw materials across oceans and 
continents to recompense and subsist artisans engaged 
in the production of Metals, Wares, and Fabrics for the 
use of the producers of those raw materials, securing 
a larger recompense, a more generous subsistence, to 
either class, by relieving them of the useless expense of 
maintaining the army of speculators, forwarders, boat- 
men, shippers, railway operators, Ac, &c., formerly in- 
terposed between them, and bringing them into direct 
and economic relationship as members of the same com- 
munity ; Cooperation renders a like good service in dis- 
pensing with nine-tenths of the present locust horde of 
hucksters, I'etailers, and middlemen, and bringing the 
farmers and artisans of the same country. State, county, 
vicinage, into a relation equally direct and beneficent. 
Protection tends to plant the artisan by the side of the 
farmer, and thus enable them to exchange their respec- 
tive products at a tithe of the cost involved in their in- 
terchange between the inhabitants of widely separated 
communities ; while Cooperation performs a like good 
office for the producers of the same country or neighbor- 
hood, enabling them to enjoy the fruits of each other's 
labor wdthout paying exorbitantly for their transfer from 
one to the other. The end contemplated in either case 
is a vast enhancement of productive power, through an 
increase of the luimber or proportion of producers, the 
elimination of needless intermediates, and a conseqiient 
enlargement of the substantial recompense of all de- 
scriptions of creative industry. 



284 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Of the various attempts to organize Labor on a basis 
of Cooperation I shall speak more briefly. Many have 
failed, as was to be expected ; the failures have been 
more general, or at least more conspicuous, among those 
which, soon after the revolution of 1848, were subsidized 
by the government of republican France, than else- 
where. A sum of $ 600,000 was appropriated and dis- 
bursed in aid of experiments in Industrial Association, 
most of which soon collapsed ; while several then started, 
by workmen who declined the proffered subvention, still 
exist and flourish. Most of these hire and pay journey- 
men, who receive wages, but no profits ; these are di- 
vided among the associates, who have very generally dis- 
carded the principle of uniformity in recompense, find- 
ing it unfavorable to efficiency or excellence, and now 
pay each associate the value of his product, — in other 
words, prefer piece-work to day-work. The association 
of Piano-makers, which commenced operations twenty 
years ago on a capital of less than fifty dollars, has now 
a capital of $ 35,000, and does a business of nearly 
$ 40,000 annually. The association of Masons has but 
eighty-odd members, of whom two-thirds work daily 
with trowel and hod ; the residue are foremen, managers, 
or simply stockholders ; while from two hundred to 
three hundred more are usually employed by it as 
journeymen. Lyons has several associations of work- 
men, one of which has eighteen hundred members ; St. 
Etienne has one of twelve hundred members, wield- 
ing a capital of $ 240,000. One formed in Vienna 
eighteen years ago, for the manufacture of cloth, but 
which now has its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, 
and farm, does a business of $ 200,000 per annum. 
Apart from these, several great manufactiuing establish- 
ments, beside paying their workmen the current wages, 
accord them a moderate share — usually, ten per cent. 



COOPERATION. 285 

• — of the profits realized on each year's business, and 
find their reward in the commiinity of interest thus 
created : most workmen seeking, by efficiency and thrift, 
to increase the profits wherein each is to share. A pro 
rata scale of distribution is usually adopted, — each 
workman receiving a dividend proportioned to his earn- 
ings during the year; so that, if $ 1,000,000 has been 
paid out as wages during the year, and $ 200,000 real- 
ized as profits, there are $ 20,000 of these to be appor- 
tioned among the workers, each of whom receives there- 
from two per cent, of his annual wages : he who has 
earned $ 500, $ 10 ; he who has earned $ 300, $ 6, and 
so on. The dividend is not apt to be large ; but, since 
it is so much over and above the usual wages, it proves 
quite acceptable. 

In this country, there have been several attempts to 
realize complete Industrial Association, most of which 
have failed and disappeared ; those of the religious com- 
munists known as Shakers, Rappites, Zoarites, Perfec- 
tionists, &c., forming the only conspicuous exceptions. 
There have been failures among these ; but quite a 
number have succeeded ; and, as several of these socie- 
ties are more than sixty years old, and are now rich in 
worldly goods, they can no longer be regarded as on pro- 
bation. Of associations for the prosecution of a special 
trade or business, those of the Iron-Moillders of Troy 
have now been some three years in operation, and 
seemed, when I was last definitely advised, to be enjoy- 
ing a substantial prosperity. They had accumulated cap- 
ital ; they were earning more than journeymen's wages ; 
and they had abundant work, and were said to do it de- 
cidedly well. Should this success endure, it will, of course, 
incite others to study their organization and history, 
with intent to copy the former and emulate the latter. 

Yet ours is one of the last countries in which Coopera- 



286 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

tion is likely to become widely popular. As a people, we 
may be viewed as on the march from East to West ; the 
active, aspiring mechanic, w^ho was born in Maine or 
New Hampshire, migrates to New York or some other 
Middle State soon after attaining his majority ; reaches 
Illinois or Missouri two or three years later ; and wall 
often be found traversing Montana or California before 
he is thirty ; and, having no fixed abiding-place, he is 
unlikely to trouble himself with aught to which stability 
is so essential as it is to Cooperation. His wages, when 
he has work, are - usually so ample that he would scorn 
to knot his brain with problems that seem to him so 
petty and paltry as those which taxed the assembled 
wisdom of the humble weavers of Toad Lane. What- 
ever the thoughtful few may do, it is not probable that the 
great majority of our workers for wages will soon give time 
or effort to the realization of Cooperative Industry, unless 
its triumph in other lauds shall be so emphatic as to 
compel their attention and excite their emulation. And 
yet my own conviction is strong that Cooperation is the 
true goal of our industrial progress, the application of 
the republican principle to Labor, and the appointed 
means of rescuing the Laboring Class from dependence, 
dissipation, prodigality, and need, and establishing it on 
a basis of forecast, calculation, sobriety, and thrift, con- 
ducive at once to its material comfort, its intellectual 
culture, and its moral elevation. It may be that as- 
sociations of workingmen to secure the full employ- 
ment and jiist recompense of their labor may not be- 
come so common in the next age as associations of cap- 
italists and business men for like ends already are ; but, 
if so, I must regret the fatuity which will not reahze that 
" In union is strength," or the faithless apathy which 
rejects the proffered good because mutual and devoted, 
persistent efforts are required to achieve it. 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 287 

XXI. 

WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 

AccoEDiNG to the official returns, the whole number 
of Sheep in the United States and the annual product 
of Wool, in 1850 and 1860 respectively, were as fol- 
lows : ^ — 

1850. 1860. 

No. of Sheep, . . 21,723,220 24,823,566 

Pounds of Wool, . . 52,516,959 62,017,153 

Inc. in 10 years. Sheep, 3,099,346. Wool, 10,500,194 lbs. 

These returns indicate a very moderate annual in- 
crease in the number of Sheep, but a more considerable 
improvement in the annual product of Wool per head. 

That Sheep Husbandry in the United States ought to 
be extended is manifest. Our people eat too much 
Pork and too little Miitton. Fresh Pork can be had 
only in the two last months of each year, — at least, 
very little is seen among our rural population at any 
other season ; while Fresh Mutton may be and is en- 
joyed by our farmers in the Summer and early Autumn, 
when fresh meat is otherwise unattainable by most of 
them and Salt Pork too uniformly a staple of their diet. 
Were our Sheep doubled in number and improved in 
quality, it would be better for us all. And, even then, 
our Sheep Husbandry would be behind that of Western 
Europe. A daring statistician ^ says that " recent Ger- 
man estimates " make the annual product of Wool as 
follows : — 

1 Quoted, but not named, in the official " Report npon Wool and 
Manufactures of Wool," by E. R. Mudge, U. S. Commissioner at the 
Paris Universal Exposition, 1867. 

2 Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census. 1860. By Joseph C5. 
G. Kennedy, Superintendent. Washington, 1862. 



288 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Countries. Pounds. Countries. Pounds. 

Great Britain, 266,000,000 Germany, 200,000,000 

France, 123,000,000 Russia in Eu- ) ^^5 qqq qoO 

) rope, ( ' ' 

and Italy, (119,000,000 United States, 95,000,000 



Spain,Portugal, K , ^ ... ... __ rope. 



Australia, South J Northern Africa, 49,000,000 

America, and [ 157,000,000 British North ) ^^ qqq qOO 
South Africa, ) America, J ' ' 

Asia, 470,000,000 

If this estimate be correct, the annual product of 
Wool in the whole world is 1,610,000,000 pounds, 
whereof little Europe produces 827,000,000, or more 
than half 

The rapid and vast diffusion of Wool-growing in Aus- 
tralia and in South America, where Sheep are neither 
fed nor sheltered, has caused a general depression of 
prices ; and this has tended to discourage Wool-growing 
among us. But it should be considered that, while the 
value of the fleece has declined, that of the meat has 
largely increased ; and the amount or weight of Meat 
produced far transcends that of Wool. Despite the low 
price of Wool, whoever produces, under favoring circum- 
stances, choice Mutton, in the vicinity of this or any 
of our cities, can hardly fail to profit by doing so. I am 
assured by successful New York and New England 
farmers that they can make money faster by growing 
early Lambs for the markets of oiir cities than by pro- 
ducing anything else. 

During the eleven years from 1850 to 1860 inclusive 
we imported unmanufactured Wool as follows : — 



Year. 


Value. 


Year. 


Value. 


1850 


. , $ 1,681,691 


1856 . 


. $ 1,665,064 


1851 . 


. . 3,833,157 


1857 . 


. . 2,125,744 


1852 


. . . 1,930,711 


1858 . 


. . 4,022,635 


1853 . 


. . 2,669,718 


1859 . 


, . 4,444,954 


1854 


. . . 2,822,185 


1860 . 


. . 4,842,152 


1855 . 


. . 2,072,139 








Total, 


. 


$ 32,110,150 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 289 

During these eleven years we also imported Woollen 
Fabrics (including some classed as such which were part- 
ly composed of other materials than Wool) as follows : — 



Year. 


Value. 


Year. 


Value. 


1850 


. . $ 17,151,509 


1856 . 


. $31,961,793 


1851 , 


. . . 19,507,309 


1857 . 


. . 31,286,118 


1852 


. . . 17,573,964 


1858 . 


. . 26,486,191 


1853 , 


. . . 27,621,911 


1859 . 


. . 33,521,956 


1854 


. . . 32,382,594 


1860 . 


. . 37,937,190 


1855 


. . . 24,404,149 








Total for eleven years. 


• 


$ 299,834,684 



During these eleven years we exported home-grown 
Wool to the value of $ 1,562,502 ; but there are no re- 
turns of American Woollens exported. We, therefore, 
appear to have imported Wool and Woollens in those 
eleven years to the value of $ 330,382,332 above that 
of our exports. And no one who knows anything of 
custom-house valuations and evasions can doubt that the 
actual disparity in value between our exports and our 
imports of Wool and Woollens considerably exceeded 
that vast sum. 

Was it well for us thus to buy abroad so large a share 
of the material wherewith our people are mainly fenced 
against the rigors of Winter and the sudden changes and 
caprices even of our milder seasons 1 I think not. 



The pi'oduction of Shoddy and Mungo — that is, the 
breaking up of the remnants of old woollen garments, 
carpets, &c., into a substance which can be spun and 
woven by machinery — is a very modern art, which origi- 
nated in Great Britain, and is still little known in this 
country. The product is mainly used for filling, and to 
such extent that the British consumption now exceeds 
65,000,000 pounds per annum, which is equal to the en- 
tire Wool crop of the United States not many years ago. 
13 s 



290 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

The average prices of Wool at our principal market 
(Boston) for the thirty-five years preceding 1860 art; 
given by Mr. Kennedy -^ as follows : Fine, 50^^ cents 
per pound ; Medium, 42^^^ ; Coarse, 35^ ; Average, a 
little under 43 cents. Assuming that our average pro- 
duct of Wool for those eleven years was 56,000,000 
pounds per annum, its aggregate value, at 43 cents per 
pound, was $264,880,000; so that we imported Wool 
and Woollens to the value of $ 75,402,232 in excess of 
our aggregate product of Wool. And the tendency, at 
least up to the close of the era of comparative Free 
Trade, was to a still further increase of our annual im- 
port alike of Wool and Woollens. 

In 1861, higher duties on both were imposed; and 
these were still further enhanced by the special " Wool 
Tariff" of 1867, under which the rates are now as fol- 
lows : — 

Wool. Class No. 1. 
Clothing wools, value 32 cents or less per pound, 10 cents per 

pound, and 11 per cent, ad valorem. 
Value over 32 cents per pound, 12 cents per pound, and 10 

per cent, ad valorem. 

Wool. Class No. 2. 
'Combing wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, 

value 32 cents or less per pound, 10 cents per pound, and 

11 per cent, ad valorem. 
Yalue over 32 cents per pound, 12 cents per pound, and 10 

per cent, ad valorem. 

Wool. Class No. 3. 
Carpet wools and other similar wools, value 12 cents or less 

per pound, 3 cents per pound. 
Value over 12 cents per pound, 6 cents per pound. 
Sheep-skins and Angora goat^skina, raw or unmanufactured, 

imported with the wool on, gashed or unwashed, 30 per 

cent, ad valorem. 

1 Se^ pensns Report fiforesaid, pp. 59-t69s 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 291 

Woollen rags, shoddy, mungo, waste, and flocks, 12 cents per 
pound. 

Wool, all manufactures of, or of which wool shall be a com- 
ponent material, not otherwise provided for in this act, 50 
cents per pound, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Flannels, blankets, hats of wool, knit goods, balmorals, woollen 
and worsted yarns, and all manufactures of every descrip- 
tion, composed wholly or in part of worsted, the hair of 
the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, except such as are 
composed in part of wool, not otherwise provided for, value 
40 cents and less per pound, 20 cents per pound, and 35 
per cent, ad valorem. 

Value 40 cents, and not over 60 cents per pound, 30 cents 
per pound, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Value 60 cents, and not over 80 cents per pound, 40 cents 
per pound, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Value above 80 cents per pound, 50 cents per pound, and 35 
per cent, ad valorem. 

On endless belts or felts for paper or printing machines, 20 
cents per pound, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Bunting, 20 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent, ad val. 

Women's and children's dress goods, and real or imitation, 
Italian cloths, composed wholly or in part of wools, worsted, 
the hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, value not 
over 20 cents per square yard, 6 cents per square yard, and 
35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Value over 20 cents per square yard, 8 cents per square yard, 
and 40 per cent, ad valorem. 

Provided, That on all goods weighing four ounces and over 
per square yard, the duty shall be 50 cents per pound, and 
35 per cent, ad valorem. 

Clothing, ready made, and wearing apparel of every descrip- 
tion, and Balmoral skirts and skirtings, and goods of simi- 
lar description, or used for like purposes, composed wholly 
or in part of wool, worsted, the hair of the alpaca, goat, 
or other like animals, made up or manufactured wholly or 
in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, except 
knit goods, 50 cents per pound, and 40 per cent, ad val. 

Webbings, beltings, bindings, braids, galloons, fringes, gimp^ 



292 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

cords, tassels, dress trimmings, head-nets, buttons or barrel 
buttons, or buttons of other forms for tassels or ornaments, 
wrought by hand or braided by machinery, made of -wool, 
M ors-ed, or mohair, or of which wool, worsted, or mohair, is 
a component material, unmixed with silk, 50 cents per 
pound, and 50 per cent, ad valorem. 

Cakpeting. 

Aubusson and Axminster, 50 per cent, ad valorem. 
Carpets woven whole for rooms, 50 per cent, ad valorem. 
Saxony, Wilton, and Tournay velvets, wrought by the Jac- 

quard machine, 70 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent. 
Brussels, wrought by the Jacquard machine, 44 cents per 

square yard, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Patent velvet and tapestry velvet, printed on the warp or 

otherwise, 40 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent, ad val. 
Tapestry Brussels, printed on the warp or otherwise, 28 cents 

per square yard, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Treble ingrain, three-ply, and worsted chain Venetian, 17 

cents per square yard, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Tarn, Venetian, and two-ply ingrain, 12 cents per square 

yard, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Hemp or jute, 8 cents per square yard. 
Drugget or bookings, printed, colored, or otherwise, 25 cents 

per square yard, and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Of wool, flax, or cotton, or parts of either, or other material 

not otherwise provided for, 40 per cent, ad valorem. 
Provided^ That mats, rugs, screens, covers, hassocks, bedsides, 

and other portions of carpets or carpeting, shall be subject 

to the rate of duty herem imposed on carpets or carpeting 

of like character or description, 
Mats, all other (not exclusively of vegetable material), screens, 

hassocks and rugs, 45 per cent, ad valorem. 
Oil-cloths for floors, stamped, painted, or printed, valued at 50 

cents or less per square yard, 35 per cent, ad valorem. 
Value over 50 cents per square yard, and all other oil-cloth 

(except silk oil-cloth), and on water-proof cloth, not other- 
wise provided for, 45 per cent, ad valorem. 
Oil silk cloth, 60 per cent, ad valorem. 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 293 

These duties are higher than they had ever hitherto 
been, except, possibly, under the Tariif of 1828. But it 
were a mistake to conclude that they differ in principle, 
or very greatly in amount, from those imposed by our 
previous Protective Tariffs. The principle of the mini- 
mum is embodied in each and all, and this has ever been 
assailed by Free-Traders as taxing exorbitantly the 
coarser and cheaper fabrics mainly worn (they allege) by 
the poor. In the memorial of the Chamber of Com- 
merce of this City, praying Congress not to enact the 
Tariff of 1824, I find this subject treated as follows : — 

" A principle which runs through the entire bill lias par- 
ticularly attracted the attention of your memoriaUsts, — that 
spirit of patriotism, wliich proposes to tax the many for the 
benefit of a few, proposes also to lay the burden on the poor 
and to exempt the rich. Those articles which are consumed 
by the poorer and more laborious classes of our . inhabitants 
are loaded with enormous duties, while those used almost ex- 
clusively by the rich are taxed at a comparatively low rate : a 
few instances will illustrate this position. The duties on low- 
priced cotton goods, on cheap flannels, and low-priced wool- 
lens, will, according to the proposed bill, be from 60 to 100 per 
cent., and on low-priced guns 140 per cent., on the first cost: 
these are almost exclusively used by the least wealthj^ part of 
our population ; while the fine cottons which pay 25 per cent., 
fine broadcloths which pay .30 per cent, and elegant fowling- 
pieces which, by this unskilfiil project, pay 6 per cent, only, 
are used almost exclusively by the rich." 

The policy of our Government, with regard to this, 
as of most other branches of manufacture, may be 
roughly characterized as Protective from 1824 to 18.34 ; 
thenceforward, a gradual reduction of duties, until they 
had fallen to a minimum or (so called) revenue rate of 
twenty per cent, in 1842; then Protective again till 1847, 
when the Tariff of 1846 took effect ; then anti-Pro- 
tectiye till 1861 ; thenceforward Protective, but more 



294 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



decidedly so since the passage of the Wool and Woollens 
Tarift'of 18G7, which remains in force. 

What have been the more important consequences of 
this last change of policy ] 

Most certainly, if either wool-growers or woollen manu- 
facturers anticipated enhanced prices for their products 
because of the Protection thus secured, they have been 
disappointed. Neither Wool nor Woollens now command 
prices so high (whether computed in paper or in coin) as 
they did when the " Wool Tariff" of 1867 was enacted. 
The law, so often insisted on in these essays, that Pro- 
tection inevitably tends, by stimulating home production, 
to a reduction of price, is here strikingly illustrated. 
The prices of Wool in New York on the 1st of October, 
in each of the years 1860, 1866, and 1869 respectively, 
■were as follows : — 

1860. 1866. 

Gold. Currency. 

Fleece per pound, coarse 

to fine, .... 30@60c. 47@75c, 
Pulled, per pound, coarse 

to fine, . . . 25@55 30@65 



1866. 

Equivalent in gold 
(gold at 146). 



1860. 

Gold. 



1869. 

Currency. 



Fleece per pound, coarse 
to fine, . . . . 

Pulled per pound, coarse 
to fine. 



1869. 

Equivalent in gold 
(gold at 130). 



30@60c. 40@65c. 30^Vo@50 
25@55 24@50 18^fio8^@38y4^ 



Cheap as wool may be deemed in this country, it is 
cheaper still in every other. Sheep husbandry in Great 
Britain is sustained by the price of mutton, not of 
sheep. 

The prices of the most important Woollen Fabrics ten 
years ago, (when we had comparative Free Trade in Wool 
and in Woollens,) and now, are as follows : — 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 



295 



Flannels, per yard — 

A. and T. white 
H. A. F. scarlet 
J. R. F. twilled scarlet 

B. twilled scarlet . 
Doubled weight scarlet twilled . 

F. & C 

Talbot R| plain scarlet 

G. M. & Co. twilled scarlet . 

E. S. 

N. A. M 

Ballam bale 4-4 white, No. 1. 
Ballam bale 4-4 white, No. 2. 
Ballam bale 4-4 white. No. 3. . 
Ballam bale 4-4 white. No. 4. 
Ballam bale 4-4 white. No. 5. . 

Blankets, per pair — 
Holland 10-4 all wool 
Holland 11-4 all wool 
Cocheco 11-4 ex. super 
Cocheco 12-4 ex. super . 
Cumberland 10-4 
Cumberland .... 
Rochdale 10-4 super extra super 
Rochdale 11-4 super extra super 
Rochdale 12-4 super extra super 
Rochdale 10-i premium 
Rochdale 11-4 premium . 
Rochdale 12-4 premium 

Cassimeres, per yard — 

Broad Brook Co.'s fancy cassi- 
meres 14 oz. goods 

HamHton Woollen Co.'s (1860) 
per yard .... 
Shawls — Middlesex Co.'s 
DeLaines — Hamilton Woollen 
Co.'s (1860) 

1 Equiralent in gold (gold at 130) 



Price in 


Price in 


Currency 


1859. 


1869.1 


Pric« in 


(Gold.) 


(Gold.) 


1869. 


$0.18 


$0.16 i 


10.21 


.26 


.23 


.30 


.30 


.29 


.37i 


.26 


.25 


.32| 


.271 


.30| 


.40 


.36 


.341 


.44^ 


.26 


.25" 


.32^ 


.23 


.20| 


.27 


.2.5 


.23 


.30 


.25 


.23 


.30 


, .75 


.65i 


.85 


.60 


.531 


.70 


. .45 


.40i 


.52| 


.40 


.34^ 


.45 


.35 


.321 


.42^ 


. 3.50 


4.23 


5.50 


5.00 


5.38 


7.00 


. 6.00 


6.15 


8.00 


7.50 


7.30 


9.50 


. 3.00 


3.46 


4.50 


4.00 


4.23 


5.50 


• 3.50 


3.27 


4.25 


• 4.50 


4.03 


5.25 


r 5.50 


4.80 


6.25 


. 4..50 


4.23 


5.50 


5.50 


5.00 


6.50 


. 6.50 


5.77 


7.50 


1.62^ 


1.34 


1.75 


@ 


@ 


@ 


1.75 


1.44 


1.87^ 


.66^Vy .521 


• -68,^ 


. 7.00 


5.38 


7.00 


. .16^V -13 


.l^iVif 


). October 


average. 





296 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Salisbury Mills, boys' checks per yard 

(1860) .... |0.58| $0.45^ $0.59^ 

Salisbury Mills Eugenie cloths (1860) .94 .69 .90^ 
Salisbury MiUs Silk Codrington 

(1860) 1.52| 1.18| 1.54f 

Crossley Oo.'s Conn., tapestry carpet — .96 1.25 

[The imported article sold in 1859 for 95 cents.] 

Whoever may have suffered from the change of policy 
initiated in 1861 and consimimated in 1867, it seems 
plain that the purchasers of Woollen Fabrics for consump- 
tion have not. Though the prices of Labor and the cost 
of Living generally have been largely enhanced, Wool 
and home-made WooUens are alike cheaper in 1869 than 
they were in 1860. 

What consequences, then, have resulted from this 
latest triumph of the principle of Protection as applied 
to Wool and Woollens 1 

Mr. Erastus B. Bigelow, an eminent inventor of ma- 
chinery adapted to the production of Woollens, and 
President of the National Association of Wool Manu- 
facturers, reports-^ our aggregate product of Wool in 
1868 at 177,000,000 pounds, or nearly thrice the amount 
we produced in 1860 ; while the value of our annual pro- 
duct of Woollen Fabrics is given by him at $ 1 75,000,000, 
against a like product of $68,865,963 in 1860. And 
this increase in value is made in defiance of a very con- 
siderable reduction in the average price of those fabrics 
since 1860. 

I have termed the above statements estimates ; but 
they are founded on returns made to the National Asso- 
ciation from the various manufactories throughout the 
country, with nearly all of which it is in correspondence. 

1 An Address on the Wool Industry of the United States, delivered 
at the Exhibition of the American Institute in the City of New York, 
October 5, 1869. 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 297 

Their general accuracy is confirmed by the officially re- 
ported fact that, while our annual consumption has 
largely increased, our importation, whether of Wool or 
Woollens, is actually less in 18C8 than it was in 1860. 
The Treasury retiu-ns are as follows : — 

I860. 1868. 

Woolimported, value . . $4,842,152 $3,'J15,262 
Woollens imported, value . '37,937,190 32,409,759 



Decrease in Wool .... $ 926,890 
Decrease in Woollens .... 5,527,431 

That great improvement has meantime been effected 
in the quality and finish of our Woollens is unquestion- 
able. The late Exhibition demonstrated this beyond 
cavil. We are now making not only far more but far 
better Woollen fabrics than we ever did prior to 1867. 
We are producing Broadcloths, Beavercloths, Brussels 
Carpets, &c., &c., which most of the purchasers sup- 
pose to be of foreign origin, and value accordingly. Of 
this shameful fact, Mr. Bigelow instructively says : — 

"Notwithstanding the unquestionable and the generally 
acknowledged excellence of our wool manufactures, those 
manufactures still suffer, more or less, in the market, from 
prejudices and prepossessions which are alike ill founded. A 
preference for fabrics of foreign origin has very naturally 
come down from the time, not very distant, when our domes- 
tic products were generally inferior. Of those who now 
habitually insist upon buying the foreign article, some are 
honestly ignorant. They are not aware of any improvement 
in American manufactures. With others, it is the merest 
aping of a senseless fashion. But the delusion could not be 
long kept up, were it not for the interest of the dealer to 
sustain it. It is easy for him to make a larger profit on the 
imported article, from the fact that its probable cost is not so 
generally known. In many instances, the temptation is so 
strong that truth, honesty, and patriotism, make their appeal 
in vain. Not only are American productions systematically 



298 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

disparaged, but, in a multitude of instances, these very pro- 
ductions are labelled as French, English, or German. The 
extent to which this imposition is carried is known only to 
those who are let into the secret. There are, probably, very 
few of us who have not thus been taken in. And, what I 
am inclined to regret as the most melancholy thing of all, is 
the unquestioned fact that some of the manufacturers them- 
selves have consented to the deed. I suppose the process by 
which such a bargain is consummated to be somewhat as fol- 
lows : A manufacturer, after much toil and outlay, is pre- 
pared to introduce a fabric not before made here. He finds 
the market, however, fully supplied with the foreign article. 
Those who hold it give him no encouragement ; for they 
know that the introduction of the domestic product must les- 
sen their chance for high profits. Between him and the con- 
sumer (who must be reached somehow, or his enterprise fails) 
stands a class of men whose interest it is to seU foreign rather 
than domestic goods. The result is a compromise. Says the 
dealer to him : ' I like your goods ; but I cannot sell them as 
American. Give them a foreign brand, confine the product 
of your mill to me, and I will take all that you produce.' The 
poor manufacturer, seeing no alternative, closes the unhal- 
lowed bargain." 

The Woollen manufacture of Great Britain is at least 
one thousand years old; indeed, it is known to have 
obtained a considerable importance while England was 
subject to the Romans. The kindred maimfactures of 
France and of Belgium have likewise been many centu- 
ries in existence, and have naturally attained great per- 
fection, through the accumidation of capital, the progress 
of invention, and like causes. Ours is of comparatively 
recent origin ; for, while a few rude " fulling-mills " and 
small manufactories were established among us even be- 
fore the Revolution, the development and importance of 
our Woollen industry may fairly date from the passage 
of the Tariff of 1824, while nearly all our great Woollen 
mills were built since the passage of the Tariff of 1842. 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 299 

If, therefore, our Woollen manufactures were still rela- 
tively crude and imperfect, that circumstance need not 
excite surprise ; but the fact is otherwise. The able Re- 
port of Mr. Mudge on the Great Paris Exposition, al- 
ready quoted, says : — 

" The many practical manufacturers who have recently 
visited Europe for the express purpose of studying its indus- 
tries, concur in declaring that in tliese respects we are on an 
equality with the most advanced nations. Laying aside the 
supposed advantages which we have in the possession of 
water-power, upon which far too much stress is laid in popu- 
lar estimates, we apply everywhere, in our fabrication of 
woollens, the factory system, and make the utmost use of 
mechanical power, while handicraft processes are still largely 
used abroad, especially in weaving. For the preparation of 
card-wool, no machinery at the Exposition equalled in effi- 
ciency the American burring machinery exhibited, such as is 
in general use here. In the carding of wool, no improve- 
ments were seen at Virviers, one of the chief centres of the 
card-wool industry in Europe, which we do not have in use. 
About the same number of hands were employed at the cards 
as here. Spinning in large establishments abroad is usually 
performed by mules; while jack-spinning is more generally 
adopted in New England, as better suited to the different 
qualities and quantities of yarns demanded by the variety of 
fabrics usually produced in our mills. The mules used here 
are of equal efficiency with those in the best mills of Europe. 
With respect to weaving, it was remarked that looms were 
being constructed at Virviers such as we would not put into 
our mills to-day. It was also remarked that no European looms 
for weaving fancy goods were shown at the Exposition which 
would bear comparison with the Crompton loom ; and, even 
upon that admirable machine, great improvements are known 
to be in progress. The other processes of manufacture, such 
as dyeing, are the same as in Europe. When we take into 
consideration the greater energy and intelligence of our bet- 
ter fed and better educated workmen, the necessary use of 
every labor-saving process, on account of the higher cost of 
13* 



300 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

labor here, and the admitted superiority in construction of 
American machinery, it may be safely asserted that a yard 
of cloth is made in this country with less hours of human 
labor than one of equal quality and the same degree of finish 
abroad. In other words, a week's labor will produce more 
yards of cloth in an American than in a European mill." 

" Well ; if such be the case, what further need of 
Protection 1 " triumphantly queries a Free-Trader. The 
Report proceeds to answer as follows : — 

" But it is said that a yard of cloth costs less in Europe 
than in the United States. Even this statement requires 
qualification ; for the American laborer can purchase here 
more yards of cloth with the produce of a day's work than 
the European laborer : the ratio of the price of cloth in this 
country, to-day, not being in proportion to the ratio of the 
rate of wages of ordinary labor. It is still true that the 
money cost of producing cloths is greater in this country than 
in Europe. From what has been said, it is apparent that the 
greater money cost of fabricating cloths is not due to any 
want of natural advantages or any deficiency in skill and 
effective labor on the part of the American manufacturer. It 
is not true of this industry, as is often asserted by theorists, 
that it has a sickly and hot-bed growth, sustained only by ar- 
tificial stimulus, and rendering its production as unnatural, to 
use Adam Smith's often quoted comparison, as that of wine 
produced from grapes grown in the greenhouses of Scotland. 
The higher cost of production in this industry is due, solely, 
to natural causes inherent in the condition of a new country 
and a progressive people, to the higher rates of the interest 
on capital required to initiate and sustain industrial enter- 
prises, and the higher rates of wages demanded by the greater 
social and educational reiquirements of our industrial popula- 
tion." 

The Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., are, I believe, 
much the largest producers of Woollens in America, and 
perhaps in the world. The following table shows the 
prices actually paid for Labor therein : — 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 301 



Pacific Mills, 




France 
and 


Belg'm 
and 


Lawrence, 


Great 


Switzer- 


Ger- 


Mass. 


Britain. 


land. 


many. 




Gold 


In 


In 


In 


Ter Week. Currency. 


at 133J 


Gold. 


Gold. 


Gold. 


Children under 15 years . $ 2.40 


$1.80 


$0.72 


$0.40 


$0.56 


Common workers in carding . 5.00 


3.75 


2.36 


1.20 


1.40 


Experienced women in carding ) ^ go 
room ) ' 


5.40 


2.88 


1.44 


1.64 


Weavers, females, average of I „ , ^ 
plain and fancy-work . ) 


6.40 


3.98 


1.80 


1.80 


Common men mill-laborers . 9.00 


6.75 


4.32 




• • • 


Spinners and experienced male ii kq 
workers ....)' 


8.62 


6.24 


2.96 


2.96 


Dresser-tenders, men, average 16.68 


12.51 


8.40 






Men, overlookers . . . 13.50 


10.12 


7.20 







We have in this country fewer holida3S, with less in- 
terruption of regular work by the stopping of mills, 
than they have in Great Britain, and there is a larger 
proportion earned per annum than would appear by the 
above weekly statement. 

Professor Leone Levi, of London, in his report upon 
" Estimates of the Earnings of the Working Classes," 
page 13, gives the average earnings of 551 workers in 
a cotton-mill at 14 s. 10 d. sterling, or $ 3.56 per week. 
This work was published in 1867. There has been no 
essential change in the wages paid at the Pacific Mills 
since that year. In April, 1869, the wages of the 2,997 
of their mill operatives (being the whole number em- 
ployed at that date) averaged $ 7.83 (equal to $ 5.87 in 
gold) per week : showing a weekly difference of $ 2.31 
(gold) in favor of the American work-people. Skilled 
work-women, single, such as weavers, earn at Pacific 
Mills from $ 4.75 to $ 6.85 ($ 3.56 to $ 5.14 gold) above 
the cost of their board, lodging, and washing. In Great 
Britain, the excess of the earnings of such persons aliove 
the cost for same items is about $ 1.58. Skilled men 
mill-workers, single, as spinners, weavers, and dresser- 



302 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

tenders, earn above their outlay for board, lodging, and 
washing, $ 7.25 to $ 12.43 {$ 5.44 to $ 9.32 gold). This 
class in Great Britain earn a like excess of $ 2.88 to 
$ 5.04 weekly. 

The work-people of the Pacific Mills are, of course, to 
a large extent, unmarried persons. In April, 1869, there 
were 781 housekeepers employed in a total of 4,086 per- 
sons. Of these 781, there were 227 living in their own 
tenements ; and the value of the houses and lands thus 
owned by these work-people was $ 413,163, or an average 
of $ 1,820 for each person, — saved, to a very large ex- 
tent, out of their own earnings. 

The amount deposited with the cashier of the corpora- 
tion by the work-people for safe-keeping during the past 
two years is $ 80,732, of which $ 54,648 has been with- 
drawn, leaving on deposit $ 26,084. This is irrespective 
of the sums deposited in the savings-banks of the city, 
which are believed to be very large. 

In 1867, when provisions were in some items higher 
than now, of eight families, numbering, including adults 
and children, forty-six persons, taken indiscriminately 
among the work-people at the Pacific Mills, and whose 
heads earned at least $ 13 (currency) per week, the cost 
of food and rent for each person per week was $ 2.24 
(currency). Supposing that prices have not materially 
fallen since, the average cost per week in gold of the 
living of each adult is at present $ 1.68. 

These, then, are the results already realized from the 
Protection afforded to our Wool and Woollen industry by 
the increased duties imposed by the Tariffs of 1861-67 
inclusive : — 

I. A very considerable increase of our annual produc- 
tion of Wool, and a much larger extension of our Wool- 
len manufacture. 

II. A consequent and important increase in the amount 
paid for Labor employed in our Woollen industry, in good 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 303 

part to women and children, whose earnings and acquired 
skill are substantially so much added to our National 
wealth. 

III. A veiy decided improvement in the quality and 
finish of our Woollen fabrics, especially Shawls, Cassi- 
meres, Beavercloths, and other descriptions intended to 
be worn as outer garments ; and 

IV. All these advantages secured without cost to our 
consumers ; since the average prices of substantial, ser- 
viceable Woollen fabrics are actually cheaper (in gold) to- 
day than they were ten years ago. 

That I am not mistaken on this head, I choose to es- 
tablish and confirm by the best Free Trade authority. 
The Evening Post of October 6 is eagerly quoted by The 
Manchester Guardian (England) as thus triumphantly 
proclaiming "What Protection has done for the Woollen 
trade of the United States " : — 

" The wools of Europe, of the Cape of Good Hope, of 
Australia, and of Brazil, were excluded here by the duty ; 
they filled the markets of Europe, so that the price there fell 
lower than ever before. English manufacturers, with far 
cheaper wool, and a specie currency, made goods at a price 
which defied competition by the United States; and thus 
both our raw wool and our cloth were driven from all foreign 
markets. Even the enormous duties on manufactured wool- 
lens could not ' protect ' our mills against their cheap cloths ; 
they are undersold even at home by the Britush, although 
these duties are so high that nothing but extensive smuggling 
can account for the low prices of many foreign cloths in the 
United States. But the advantage of the European mills m 
all the finer fabrics is so great that, even afi;er paying 50 cents 
per pound, and 35 per cent, on their value besides, they can 
sell their goods here more cheaply than those made here. 
Our mills are ruined ; and those who want to enjoy the bless- 
ings of Protection have plenty of chances now to buy well- 
appointed factories at a small percentage of their actual cost. 
Nor are the wool-growers better off. The inquiry for the 
raw material here has been discouraged by this breaking up 



304 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

of the trade, so that it has brought them fewer cents in paper 
since the high tariff was passed than it did in gold before. 
Meanwhile, the people at large have suffered. Every person 
in the country is a consumer of woollen goods ; and every one 
is heavily taxed by these oppressive duties. Those who wear 
broadcloth and walk on luxurious carpets pay so much more 
for them that they have less of a surplus left to employ other 
industries. The poor man's bed is less warm, and his home less 
comfortable ; for he must buy hghter blankets and inferior car- 
pets or none at all. Thus the whole community has been in-, 
jured ; and even the classes to whom these duties were designed 
to secure a monopoly have gained nothing. These facts are now 
vridely known, and are producing their natural effect upon 
intelligent men. Some of the leading manufacturers of wool- 
len goods are coming to the support of the principles to which 
they have so long been blind. Thousands of the wool- 
growers see clearly why they are not prospering, and demand 
a repeal of the taxes on the necessaries of life ; and the peo- 
ple, whose only interest is to get the best goods at fair prices, 
are beginning to ask why oppressive duties, which benefit 
nobody, should be maintained:" 

This testimony of a bitter adversary to Protection is 
certainly trustworthy to the extent of its bearing in our 
favor ; and I cannot be wrong in inferring that, with 
cheaper Wool, a largely increased product of American 
Woollens, and no profit to the manufacturers, our con- 
sumers must be supplied with home-made Woollens at 
low prices, as T have already shown that they are. 
Since we are importing fewer, and making at least twice 
as many Woollens as we did ten years ago (all of which 
find markets among our own people), if " our mills are 
ruined," as The Post asserts, and " well-appointed fac- 
tories for sale at a small percentage of their actual cost," 
then it is clearly untrue that Protection exaggerates 
prices and robs the consumer to enrich the manufacturer. 
Certainly, those mills are not " ruined " by making from 
cheapened Wool goods that sell much higher, in an ex- 
panded market, than they did ten years ago, when Wool 



WOOL AND WOOLLENS. 305 

was higher and our consumption of American Woollens 
much less. Can it be necessary that I enlarge on this 
head 1 Is not the demonstration conclusive on a mere 
statement of the case 1 

Let me assume that my readers can need no more 
argument on this point, and close with simply citing the 
law which underlies and governs the facts, as set forth 
by Alexander Hamilton in his masterly Report to Con- 
gress on the expediency of encouraging Manufactures, 
nearly eighty years ago : — 

" But though it were true that the immediate and certain 
effect of regulating or controlling the competition of foreign 
.with domestic fabrics was to increase the prices, it is univer- 
sally true that the contrary is the ultimate effect with every 
successful manufacture. When a domestic manufacture has 
attained perfection, and has engaged in the prosecution of it a 
competent number of persons, it invariahly becomes cheaper. 
Being free from the heavy charges which attend the importa- 
tion of foreign commodities, it can be afforded, and accord- 
ingly seldom or never fails to be afforded, cheaper, in process 
of time, than the foreign article for which it is a substitute. 
The internal competition which takes place soon does away 
with everything like monopoly, and by degrees reduces the 
price of the article to the minimum of reasonable profit on 
the capital employed. This accords with the reason of things 
and with experience. Whence it follows that it is the inter- 
est of a community, with a view to eventual and permanent 
economy, to encourage the growth of manufactures in a na- 
tional view. A temporary enhancement of price must al- 
ways be well compensated by a permanent reduction of it." 

Possibly we have now abler statesmen than Hamilton 
and his fellow-founders of our National existence, though 
I really do not know where to look for them. I cannot 
realize that views broader, more sagacious, more lumi- 
noiis, than those of Hamilton, whereof I have just given 
a sample, are day by day vouchsafed us by Brick Pome- 
roy, S, S, Cox, The World's buffoon, and Professor Perry. 



306 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XXII. 
IMMIGRATION. 

That Population is a main element of National 
strength, — that its rapid, persistent increase implies 
National growth and prosperity, — that the voluntary- 
migration of thousands from their native land to one 
far distant, especially if its language, religion, customs, . 
institutions, &c., differ widely from those in which the 
emigrants have hitherto delighted, argues a decided pre- 
dominance of attractions and advantages in the land 
they seek, over that they abandon, — can scarcely need 
demonstration. Fanaticism may, indeed, impel thou- 
sands of its votaries to leave a fertile for a naturally 
sterile and forbidding region ; but such migrations are 
of rare occurrence, and are as usually limited in area 
as transient in duration. Religious persecutions have 
driven thousands from the soil they would gladly have 
clung to till death ; but these have exerted little influ- 
ence on the peopling of our country since her indepen- 
dence, and seem unlikely to prove more potent in the next 
century than in the last. It is within the truth to esti- 
mate that fully nine-tenths of those who have, since 
1660, come hither from Europe in voluntary quest of 
new homes, have been mainly impelled by the hope of 
thus improving their pecuniary or social condition, and 
securing for their offspring larger opportunities and 
fairer prospects than those on which their own eyes first 
opened. 

If the impression prevails that our coimtry has been, 



IMMIGRATION. 307 

ever since her independence was established, the cyno- 
sure and chosen home of the less fortunate millions of 
the Old World, that impression is grounded in error. 
So long as our industry remained almost exclusively 
Agricultural, our annual Immigration was inconsiderable, 
although the system under which a foreigner might bind 
himself to a sea-captain (or the owners of his vessel) to 
serve one, three, five, or seven or more years after reach- 
ing om- shores, in payment of his passage, was plainly 
calculated largely to swell the volume of such Immigra- 
tion, while by no means improving its quality. Thou- 
sands of these " redemptioners " were thus cast upon 
our shores who would never, in all human probability, 
have made their way hitlier had they been required to 
earn and save the needful passage-money before embark- 
ing. And the redemption system, however objectionable 
as a whole, was not without beneficent features. The 
immigrant was not put ashore, on landing in Amei'ica, to 
make his way as he might, among a people to whom his 
garb was strange, and his manners seemed uncouth, 
while his speech was often utterly unintelligible. The 
captain or consignee, in selling his services for the speci- 
fied term, provided him with a home and insured him 
against present starvation ; if he landed without skill in 
any useful art, he was morally certain to acquire some 
industrial proficiency while working out his passage. I 
presume the system under which China is now pouring 
her superabundant millions upon the Western hemi- 
sphere does not differ essentially from that our fathers 
tolerated and legalized, yet which we have long since 
discouraged and discarded. 

If a hundred persons, taken indiscriminately, were 
severally asked to indicate the chief impulse to migra- 
tion, probably the answers of nine-tenths of them would 
point to density of populatioia in one country, paralleled 



308 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

by sparseness in another ; yet they would hardly be sus- 
tained by the facts. 1 judge that thinly peopled Scot- 
land, Switzerland, or even Norway, supplies more emi- 
grants to the New World than teeming London, Paris, 
or Lancashire. The general truth that population tends 
to abandon purely agricultural regions for those, more 
densely peopled, whose industry is diversified, is illustrated 
by what is perpetually going on in our own coxmtry, in 
Canada, and in many others. Says The New American 
Cyclopsedia : ^ — 

" It is a significant fact that the emigration from some Eu- 
ropean countries — Rhenish Prussia, and Westphalia, for in- 
stance — is in an inverse ratio to population. That is to say, 
the largest number emigrate from the most thinly settled 
agricultural districts; these having, relatively, a larger over- 
population than those in which agricultural and manufactur- 
ing pursuits are combined." 

The readers of these essaj^s will not be at a loss for 
the reason of this anomaly, superficially considered. 

Though the fearful and wide-spread convulsions at- 
tending and following the French Revolution, reducing 
multitudes from wealth and comfort to want and misery, 
driving many into exile and expelling myriads from their 
homes, would seem calculated, especially when supple- 
mented by the " redemption " system, to have flooded 
our shores with immigrants, the number actually drawn 
or driven hither throughout our Free-Traders' golden 
age of low tariffs and exclusive devotion to Agriculture, 
was surprisingly small. Samuel Blodgett, who wrote in 
1806, and who is indorsed by Bromwell, in his History 
of Immigration, written half a century later, as " a sta- 
tistician of moi-e than ordinary research and accuracy," 
affirms that the immigrants to this country in the ten 
yeai's prior to 1794 did not exceed 4,000 per annum ; 

1 Article on Emigration, Vol. VII. 



IMMIGRATION. 309 

and, though 10,000 were supposed to have come hither 
in 1 794, the current forthwith subsided ; so that the 
Hon. Adam Seybert (M. C. from Pennsylvania), writing in 
1818, estimates the average migration hither, from 1796 
to 1810, at 6,000 per annum; and he adds that, admit- 
ting 10,000 to have come over in 1794, that number re- 
mained without parallel down to 1817. In that year, 
22,240 persons arrived at our ports ; of whom, after due 
deduction for voyagers on business or for pleasure, we 
may estimate the immigrants who remained with us at 
15,000. 

By an act of Congress approved March 2, 1819, col- 
lectors of customs were required to keep a record and 
make a quarterly return to the Treasury of all passen- 
gers an'iving in their respective districts from foreign 
ports ; and these reports, duly condensed in the Depart- 
ment, are the chief bases of our knowledge of the sub- 
sequent growth and progress of Immigration. Mr. 
Bromwell's volume,^ being compiled from official sources, 
may, so far as it speaks, be trusted implicitly ; and it 
gives the total number of foreign-born passengers arriv- 
ing at the ports of the United States in the several years 
from 1820 to 1855 inclusive, as follows : — 



1820 . 


. . 8,385 


1827 . . 


. . 18,875 


1821 


. . 9,127 


1828 . . 


. . 27,382 


1822 . . 


. . 6,911 


1829 . 


. . 22,520 


1823 . 


. . 6,354 


1830 . , 


. . 23,322 


1824 . . 


. 7,912 


1831 . 


. . 22,633 


1825 . 


. . 10,199 


1832 . , 


. . « 60,482 


1826 . . 


. 10,837 


1833 . 


. . 58,640 



1 Histoiy of Immigration into the United States. Bj' Wm. J. Brom- 
■well, of the Department of State. Redfield, New York, 1856. 

2 Hitherto, each year has closed with September; but for this and 
the ten following years the arrivals during the calendar year are given, 
60 that the return for 1832 contains the arrivals for five quarters, or 
fifteen months. 



310 



POLITICAL ECONOMY, 



1834 . 


. . 65,365 


1845 


1835 . 


. . 45,374 


1846 


1836 . 


. . 76,242 


1847 


1837 . 


. . 79,340 


1848 


1838 . 


. . 38,914 


1849 


1839 . . 


. 68,069 


1850 


1840 . 


. . 84,066 


1851 


1841 . . 


. 80,289 


1852 


1842 . 


. . 104,565 


1853 


1843 . . 


. 1 52,496 


1854 


1844 . 


. . 78,615 


1855 



. 114,371 

154,416 
. 234,968 

226,527 
. 297,024 
== 369,980 
. 379,466 

371,603 
. 368,645 

427,833 
. 200,877 

[Note. — The greatly increased volume of Immigration 
which, beginning to swell in 1849, i-eached its maximum in 
1854, was doubtless impelled by the discovery of Gold in 
California in 1848, with the consequent rush of thousands 
thither, and the resulting momentum imparted to both our 
Agriculture and our Manufactures by the new and rapidly 
expanding markets opened to them on the Pacific] 

This table exhibits vividly the gi'owth and progress 
of Immigration to this coimtry from its inconsiderable 
infancy to its ripe maturity ; and I submit that no fair 
mind can gravely deny that it is a direct consequence 
of the establishment and growth of our Home Manufac- 
tures. So long as our industry remained almost exclu- 
sively Agricultural, we failed to attract any considerable 
Immigration : the total number of immigrants for the 
forty years which followed the establishment of our In- 
dependence not having exceeded 300,000 ; while during 
the next forty years — which may be designated by com- 
parison our Manufacturing era — our annual increase of 
population from this source mounted from a maximum 
of 10,199 to one of 427,833, and our aggregate accession 

1 In 1842, the fiscal year was changed again, so as to close with Sep- 
tember ; so this is the retui'n for but three quarters, as that of 1832 was 
for five. 

2 Changed back again; so that this return includes the arrivals for 
^ve quarters. 



IMMIGRATION. 3l-^ 

of inhabitants from abroad was about Four Millions. 
And, in spite of our great Civil War, our gain by immi- 
gi-ation during the last thirteen years must have largely 
exceeded Two Millions. 

Nor is this all. A very large proportion of these im- 
migrants approach our shores in the flower of their youth 
or in the early prime of life, and soon become parents 
of vigorous, hardy children. Much has of late been 
absurdly said of the decay of the reproductive power, 
especially of our primitive New England stock, and of 
the prospect that this will soon be supplanted around the 
very hearth-stones of the Puritans ; the grain of truth 
at the bottom of this heap of chaff being simply this : 
New England has for half a century been sending forth 
the most enterprising and energetic of her sons and 
daughters to people and civilize the vast regions which 
lie between her and the Pacific ; and she has been prof- 
fering homes and work in their stead to the physically 
robust but intellectual!}' less developed youth of West- 
ern Europe and of Canada. Of course, a very large 
proportion of those now born on her soil are children of 
foreign-lx)rn parents, just as a large portion of those 
born in the Great West proudly trace their origin back 
to a New England ancestry. I presume that this trans- 
fusion of blood is beneficial both to the East and the 
West ; and I do not apprehend that the original New 
England stock is in any more danger of being supplanted 
or run out at home than Ireland is of ceasing, because 
of emigration, to be Irish. 

Of the immigrants who landed on our shores in the 
forty years ending with 1860, there came from different 
countries as follows : — 

Great Britain and Germany . . . 1,546,476 

Ireland . . . 2,750,874 Holland 21,579 

France 208,063 Mexico 17,766 



312 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

West Indies . . . 40,487 Italy 11,202 

Sweden and Norway 36,129 Belgium 9,862 

South America . . . 6,201 Denmark 5,548 

The Azores .... 3,242 Portugal 2,614 

Sardinia 2,030 Poland ..... 1,659 

Russia Ij374 All other and not 

Switzerland. . . . 37,733 stated 318,140 

China 41,443 

Total 5,062,414 

[Note. — Of the large number who came to us from British 
ports, it is probable that fully 2,000,000 were Irish, while a 
considerable number had made their way from Germany, 
Prance, Belgium, Sweden, &c., to G-reat Britain, thence em- 
barking for this country. So a considerable proportion of 
those who embarked from French ports were probably Ger- 
mans, Belgians, or Swiss. 

Up to a recent period, fully half of our immigrants were 
of Irish birth ; but of late migration from Ireland has fallen 
off, while that from far more spacious and populous Germany 
has largely increased, so that the last-named country (or 
countries) is probably sending, and will henceforth send, us 
more people than all the British Isles. The migration hither 
from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (sometimes grouped as 
Scandinavia), has also largely increased ; being mainly at- 
tracted to the congenial climate of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
their vicinity.] 

Since 1855, the whole number of persons, other than 
natives of the United States, who arrived as passengers 
at our ports was in each year as follows ; — 

1856 . . . 200,436 1863 . . . 176,282 

1857 . . . 251,306 1864 . . . 193,418 

1858 . . . 123,126 1865 .... 248,120 

1859 . . . 121,282 1866 . . . 318,554 

1860 . . . 153,640 1867 . . . 298,358 

1861 .... 91,920 1868 . . . 297,215 

1862 . . . 91,987 '■ 

Total in 13 years .... 2,565,644 



IMMIGRATION. 313 

While I't IS probable that this somewhat exceeds the 
whole number of immigrants, — many persons of foreign 
birth arriving by sea who were not immigrants, but mer- 
cantile or other travellers, — it should be considered that 
thousands annually migrate hither from (or through) the 
Canadas, who do not count in the above exhibit, not 
having reached us by sea. Thousands annually leave 
Great Bi'itaui and Ireland in vessels whose destination 
is British America ; but their emigrant passengers are 
scarcely landed in the New World ere they strike a bee- 
line for the United States. Others give the Canadas a 
trial, but are soon driven thence, by their comparative 
lack of enterprise and dearth of employment, to the 
greater activity, more -rapid growth, and ampler wages, 
proffered by the Union. 

Of the above aggregate immigration for thirteen 
years, there came to us from different countries as fol- 
lows : — 

British Isles . . 1,215,600 Germany, including 

British America . . 108,531 Austria .... 911,426 

Sweden and Norway 58,289 China 65,943 

Denmark .... 13,043 Holland .... 11,205 

France 49,383 West Indies . . . 10,745 

Switzerland . . . 24,539 Spain 10,340 

Italy 13,088 Belgium 8,245 

Hungary 487 Russia 1,761 

Azores 4,588 Poland 2,209 

Central America. . .3,351 Portugal . . • . . 2,090 

South America . . . 2,452 All others .... 48,329 

For the last fiscal year, closing with June, 1869, there 
came to the United States by sea, other than natives of 
this country, no less than 352,569 persons, of whom 
214,746 were males, and 137,283 females. They haded 
from different countries as follows : — 

14 



314 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Great Britain and G-ermany and Aiis- 

Ireland .... 125,224 tria 132,537 

Eritish North Amer- France 3,879 

ica 20,918 Switzerland .... 3,650 

Sweden and Norway 40,292 Denmark .... 3,649 

China. 12,874 Italy 1,488 

Eelg.um 1,922 Spain 1,123 

Holland 1,134 All other countries . 3,879 

Frederick Kapp, one of our State's Commissioners of 
Emigration, in a paper recently read by him before the 
Social Science Association, sums up the influence of 
political and commercial convulsions and of good or bad 
harvests upon the volume of European migration hither- 
ward, as follows : — 

" The difficulty experienced in disposing of property at 
satisfactory prices prevented many from leaving the Old 
World immediately after the close of the Napoleonic wars. 
But the great famine of 1816-17 drove several thousands 
over the ocean. Here it may be stated that, from that time 
forward, the moral and material causes of immigration, 
above alluded to, regularly governed the numerical propor- 
tions of the influx of Europeans into the United States in 
successive years. To prove the controlling influence exercised 
over immigration by material misery, on the one hand, and 
political oppression on the other, a few statistical data will 
suffice : 

" While, in 1826, of 18,837 immigrants, 7,709 came ft-om 
the British Isles, in 1827 their number increased to 11,952 of 
18,875, and in 1828 to 17,840, of a- total of 27,283 ; but in 
1829 their number fell to 10,594 of 22,530, and in 1830 to 
3,874 of 23,322 souls. These fluctuations were due to the 
great commercial panic of 1826, and the distress in the manu- 
facturmg districts of England, as well as the famine in Ire- 
land, which drove thousands from their homes who, under 
ordinary circumstances, would never have thought of emigra- 
tion. 

"Again, in G-ermany, where the abortive revolutionary 
movement of 1830 - 33, the brutal political persecutions of 



IMiMIGRATION. 315 

the several State governments, and the reactionary pohcy of 
the Federal Diet, as well as a general distrust of the futui-e, 
produced an unusually large emigration. In 1831, only 
2,395 Germans had arrived in the United States ; in 1832, 
10,168; in 1833, 6,823; and in 1834 to 1837, the years of 
the greatest political depression, 17,654, 8,245, 20,139, and 
23,035, respectively. 

" The emigration from Ireland, which from 1822 rose much 
beyond its former proportions, reached its culminating point 
after the great famine of 1846. During the decade of 1845 
to 1854 inclusive, in which period the highest figures ever 
known iij the history of emigration to the United States 
were reached, 1,512,100 Irish left the United Kingdom. In 
the first half of that decade, viz. from January 1, 1845, to 
December 31, 1849, 607,241 went to the United States; and 
in the last half, viz. from January 1, 1850, to December 31, 
1854, as many as 904,859 arrived in this country. With 
this unprecedentedly large emigration, Ireland had ex- 
hausted herself Since 1855, her quota has fallen off to 
less than one-half of the average of the preceeding ten 
years. 

" Almost coincident in point of time with this mighty 
exodus from Ireland was the colossal emigration from G-er- 
many, which followed the failure of the political revolutions 
attempted in 1849 and 1851. Already, in 1845 and the follow- 
ing years, the German contingent of emigrants to the United 
States showed an average twice as large as in the same space 
of time previous to the year named. But a voluntary expa- 
triation on a much larger scale resulted from the final triumph 
of political reaction. The coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon 
closed for all Europe the revolutionary era opened in 1848. 
In the three years preceding that event, the issue of the 
struggle of the people against political oppression had re- 
mained doubtful. But the second of December, 1851, having 
decided the success of the oppressors for a long time to come, 
the majority of those who felt dissatisfied with the reaction- 
ary regime left their homes. The fact that the largest num- 
ber of Germans ever landed in one year in the United States 
came in 1854, showed the complete darkening of the political 



316 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

horizon at that time. The apprehension of a new Continental 
war, which actually broke out a year later in the Crimea, also 
hastened the steps of those who sought refuge in this coun- 
try. People of the well-to-do classes, who had months and 
years to wait before they could sell their property, helped to 
swell the tide to its extraordinary proportions. From January 
1, 1845, till December 31, 1854, there arrived 1,226,392 Ger- 
mans in the United States ; 452,943 of whom came in the 
first five years of this period, and 773,449 in the last five. 

" But the numerical strength of immigration to this country 
is not governed solely by the manifestation in Europe of ma- 
terial and moral disturbances. While bad crops, commercial 
and industrial crises, and unfavorable turns in political affairs 
in the Old World, tend to increase immigration, the appear- 
ance of the same phenomena in the United States as certain- 
ly tends to decrease it. Thus, in 1838, the total of immigra- 
tion decreased to 38,914, while in the previous year it had 
amounted to 79,340, and in 1839 and 1840 it increased again to 
68,069 and 84,066, respectively. The reason of this extraor- 
dinary decrease was the great financial crisis of 1837, which 
shook the foundations of the whole industrial and agricultural 
life of the United States. Again, the influx of aliens into 
New York was smaller in 1858 and 1859 than in any previous 
year since 1842, for the only reason that the commercial crisis 
of 1857 had frightened off" many of those who wanted to 
make a living by the labor of their hands. In 1858 and 1859, 
only 78,589 and 79,322 emigrants, respectively, arrived in 
New York ; while in 1856, their number amounted to 142.342, 
and in 1857, to 186,733. In 1860, it rose to 105,162 ; but, in 
consequence of the civil war, which broke out in 1861, it fell 
again in 1861 to 65,539, and in 1862 to 76,306. In 1867, the 
German immigration to New York increased over that of 
1866 by more than 10,000, in which last-mentioned year it 
had already reached the large number of 106,716 souls. Its 
ranks were swelled in 1867 in consequence of the emigration 
of men liable to miUtary service from the new provinces 
annexed to Prussia in 1866, and of families which were dis- 
satisfied with the new order of things. Hanover contributed 
the largest share of this kind of emigration. In 1868, the 



IMMIGRATION. 317 

tide subsided again, as people began to become reconciled 
to the sudden change. 

" In short, bad times in Europe regularly increased, and 
bad times in America invariably diminislied, immigration." 

In the last century, and, measurably, throughout the 
first quarter of this, the immigration to this country, 
being largely made up of " redemptiouers," added little 
to our national wealth beyond the value embodied in 
their stout and willing arms. Since then, however, their 
average pecuniary condition has steadily improved, until 
Mr. Kapp's estimate — founded on much observation and 
intimate knowledge — makes the average value of the 
property they bring with them $ 150 per head, which, if 
they number 250,000 per annum, gives an addition to 
our national wealth of $ 37,500,000 from this source. 
Of this aggregate, probably $ 20,000,000 comes in the 
form of money, or of bills of exchange, which subserve 
the same end in reducing the heavy balance of trade 
against us. 

Nor is this all. The official returns clearly indicate 
an improvement in the industrial capacity of our immi- 
gration. In the four years 1857 — 60 inclusive, the 
number of immigrants reported as mechanics was but 
56,194 ; while, for the four years 1865 - 68, the number 
so reported was 87,421, — an increase which I am confi- 
dent would not have been shown had not the former 
been an era of relative Free Trade, while the latter was 
one of Protection. 

Immigration is not an unmixed good. Very much 
depends on its quality. Said stout, sensible, practical 
Captain John Smith, writing home to the London Com- 
pany which had employed him to found the Colony of 
Virginia, from amidst the unpromising material with 
which they had supplied him, " When you send again, I 



318 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

entreat you rather to send but thirty carpenters, hus- 
bandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and 
diggers-up of trees'-roots, well provided, than a thousand 
of such as we have." A good many colonizers and found- 
ers of States have preferred similar requests, though 
seldom with equally pressing reasons for so doing. If 
all the thieves and harlots, blacklegs and beggars, of 
Europe, were to proffer us assurances of their distin- 
guished consideration, proposing to honor us with the 
light of their countenances on and after the opening of 
the next Spring, we should doubtless advise them of our 
ability and willingness to spare them that proof of their 
affection. Their coming would add largely to our num- 
bers, but nothing at all to our strength, our worth, or 
our happiness. Hence, we have always repelled, as add- 
ing insult to injury, every detected attempt of German 
princelings or Belgian municipalities to saddle us with 
the care and subsistence of their criminals, vagrants, or 
paupers. Doubtless, these have, through collusion with 
sea-captains, been thrown upon our charity by thousands 
without eliciting even a remonstrance ; but that was be- 
cause the wrong was committed so adroitly as to escape 
detection : whenever we have learned that a European 
prison or poor-house had been emptied on our shores, we 
have resented it as a dastardly outrage. And, on the 
other hand, we have welcomed every immigrant, no mat- 
ter how poor and illiterate, who brings hither an honest 
heart and two brown hands, as a positive and valued ac- 
quisition. Though he have less than a sovereign or na- 
poleon in his pocket, if he steps ashore able and willing 
to wield the spade and the pick-axe, he is prized as an 
accession. to our strength and our wealth. 

And, while a stout ditcher or collier is justly thus 
valued, a thoroughly skilful and capable engineer or ar- 
tificer is a still more precious acquisition. In winning 



IMMIGRATION. 319 

Agassiz from Europe, we secured an acquisition of 
greater value than twenty day-laborers ; could we at the 
same time have won Liebig likewise, we should have 
justly been more proud of our acquisition than though 
it had been another Alaska or St. Thomas. Had it 
pleased God to send us Watt and Arkwright and George 
Stephenson in their early manhood, the gift would have 
been worth more to us than Canada or Mexico. 

Now, one inevitable consequence of the establishment 
of Manuftictures on our soil has been the attraction to 
our shores of a higher order of industrial ability (or 
faculty, to use a good old word in its wholesome Yankee 
significance) than we formerly did, or could otherwise 
hope to do. We could not expect to draw men of high 
capacity hither until we could proffer them congenial 
and remi;nerative employment. A Roebling or an Elias 
Howe is even less likely to be attracted to citizenship in 
Paraguay or Abyssinia than to be developed among her 
indigenous population. If we had been content with 
Agriculture as a National pursuit, we should no more 
have drawn hither the better class of European artisans 
than developed the inventive and higher industrial pow- 
ers of our native-born population. As it is, while we 
have, on the one hand, enriched the world by our great 
inventions, we have, on the other, enriched ourselves by 
putting to use among us the great inventions simultane- 
ously produced on foreign soil. 

When Louis XIV., misnamed the Great, revoked the 
edict of Nantes, whereby Henry IV. had guaranteed re- 
ligious liberty to all Frenchmen of whatever commiinion, 
— when Louis set on his "booted apostles " to hunt the 
Protestants out of Fmnce or out of the world, — he did 
not realize that he was driving away the most precious 
wealth of his kingdom. It was not the mere loss of a 
million and a half of her people, that thus crippled and 



320 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

impoverished France ; it was the fact that these were 
in large measure manufacturers and artisans, the most 
inteUigent, ingenious, and skilful of her people. They 
carried with them, into their enforced exile, arts which 
their native land, so unworthy of them, could hardly 
spare ; they bore away to Germany, Holland, Great 
Britain, industrial devices and processes, the loss of 
which France still mourns. Her marvellous genius^ 
Palissy, who lived to exalt by his achievements Pottery 
from its former low estate into one of the rarest and 
loftiest of the useful arts, was nearly lost to her by this 
stupid, brutal despotism, which failed to see in persecu- 
tion for conscience' sake the invasion of a most sacred 
and inestimable right, — a right essential not only to 
moral and intellectual health and growth, but even to 
the physical and social well-being of civilized man. 

For the last few years, the champions of Free Trade 
have asserted and attempted to demonstrate an actual 
superiority in the essential recompense and social condi- 
tion of the Laboring Class of Great Britain over that of 
their brethren in this country. Statistics in abundance 
have been produced and figures manipulated with the 
intent of proving that a working-man's wages in Eng- 
land will procure him better food, clothing, and shelter, 
than the wages of his American counterpart will buy in 
this country. " You can do anything with bayonets but 
sit on them," says a pithy apothegm ; and so you may 
do anything with statistics but overbear the most palpa- 
ble, indisputable facts. The undeniable truth that one 
hundred persons migrate hither from the British isles 
and colonies, to improve their condition by their own in- 
dustry, for every one who, with like intent, migrates 
hence to those isles, brushes away the cobwebs of sophis- 
try and places the truth beyond contradiction. 

Vast as has been the volume of migration to this 



IMMIGRATION. 321 

country for the last quarter of a century, it has mani- 
festly not yet reached its maximum. Tiie building of 
one Pacific Railroad through the heart of our country, 
soon to be followed by others, facilitates and invites an 
immense and rapid expansion of our Mining and the 
subsidiary pursuits, thus opening new and eager markets 
for the products of the farm, the workshop, and the fac- 
tory. The valleys of the streams issuing from either 
flank of the Rocky Mountains, but more especially on 
this side, are I'apidly filling up with herdsmen and farm- 
ers, who find, in the mining camps of the adjacent "foot- 
hills " and more elevated crests and ridges, a market for 
nearly every edible they can produce. Recent discover- 
ies of boundless coal-fields in Utah, among the " Black 
Hills " of Wyoming, beneath the valleys and plains of 
Colorado, with an abundance of the ores of Iron and aU 
the baser Metals, presage an early erection of furnaces 
and works for the reduction of various ores throughout 
the rugged interior of our continent. Cotton is now 
gi'owu with pi'ofit in southern Utah ; the j'oung vine- 
yards of New-Mexico promise early and ample harvests ; 
while exploration southward from Salt Lake and White 
Pine indicate less sterility and far greater natural wealth 
throughout the wild regions tributary to the gi-eat Col- 
orado than have hitherto been accoi'ded them. In spite 
of many failures and disappointments, our production of 
Gold and Silver must be far ampler ten years hence than 
it has ever been yet. Perhaps no such enormous depos- 
its of Gold already mined by rivers and runnels, working 
silently and unobservedly throughout so many past ages, 
as dazzled the vision of our California pioneers, will ever 
again be unearthed ; for I know no other region whose 
streams, plunging swiftly down. the steep face of a high 
mountain-range, have worn such deep gorges and concen- 
trated their heavier minerals in such narrow sand-beds; 



322 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

but barely a fraction of the precious metals imbedded 
in the primitive rocks of our Pacific slope has yet been 
extracted, while enough remains undisturbed to pay the 
public debts of all nations without a sensible diminution 
of its volume. Illimitable is the demand for Labor to 
develop this measureless wealth ; and every man actually 
engaged in Mining requires the services of several other 
(nen as producers of Machinery, of Food, of Fabrics, to 
jBUstain him at his work and give efficiency to his efforts. 
Vainly do we look to Europe to purchase and consume 
our surplus Food : her markets are inevitably capricious 
and her prices unremunerative : but with our Railroads 
traversing Arizona, Montana, Idaho, our Mines fully 
opened and worked, our Manufactories supplying our 
own ever-expanding wants, and our People uniting, hand 
in hand and eye to eye, to sustain every Home interest 
and develop every Home resource, a new era in National 
growth will be opened, and our Immigration in the fu- 
ture wholly eclipse and belittle the grandest realizations 
of the past. 

[Note. — Nothing can well be more fallacious than the 
Free-Traders' computations of the number of persons actu- 
ally employed in and subsisted by our Mining and Manufac- 
turing industry. For every person returned in the Census 
as making Iron, there will be at least a score cutting wood, 
burning it into charcoal, making roads, bridges, &c., mining 
coal, quarrying limestone, &c., &c., — all of them impelled, 
and paid so to do, by the fact that the furnaces require their 
labor, or its product, — all, in verity, engaged in making 
Iron.] 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 323 



XXIII. 
SPECIFIC— AD VALOREM— MINIMUM. 

A specific duty is one which exacts so much money 
per yard, per pound, per ton, on the importation of an 
article, without regard to fluctuations in the value or 
price of that article. An ad valorem duty exacts such a 
percentage of the appraised, sworn, or invoice, value of 
the article or articles imported. A minimum is estab- 
lished when the act provides that all Woollen dress cloths 
(for instance) which are invoiced, appraised, or sworn, to 
be worth or to have cost less than one dollar per square 
yard, shall be taken and deemed to have cost one dollar 
per square yard, and charged with duty accordingly. 

I am not aware that the minimum principle was em- 
ployed in framing any American Tariff prior to 1816, 
when Mr. Lowndes of South Carolina proposed that all 
imported Cotton fabrics invoiced or appraised as costing 
less than twenty-five cents per square yard should be 
taken and deemed to have cost that sum, and charged 
with duty accordingly. The duty on Cotton fabrics 
being fixed at twenty-five per cent., this provision raised 
the impost on all imported Sheetings, Shirtings, Calicoes, 
&c., to 6:^ cents per square yard at the lowest, and thus 
gave to our infant Cotton manufacture a protection 
which enabled it to flourish and expand throughout the 
succeeding years. Indeed, Mr. Calhoun, in defending 
this provision, frankly stated that its object was to place 
the stability and growth of that manufacture beyond 



324 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

contingency, — as it did. For, though twenty-five cents 
per square yard may have been a fair estimate of the 
average value of Cotton fabrics when that Tariff was 
framed, yet the rapid expansion of our Cotton culture, 
resulting in lower and yet lower prices for the staple, 
paralleled by the strides continually made in inventions 
which rendered more effective the machinery and pro- 
cesses for spinning and weaving the staple, cheapening 
at once production and product, ultimately reduced the 
price of many common but serviceable Cotton fabrics be- 
low ten cents per square yard ; so that the duty, though 
still nominally twenty-five per cent., was more efficiently 
Protective than would have been one of one hundred per 
cent, lacking the minimum. 

A cardinal oVijection to Ad Valorem duties, upon im- 
ported articles which compete directly and depressingly 
with the products of our own industry, is this : Such 
duties must always he lowest when they should he highest, 
and highest when the need of them is least. Let \is sup- 
pose, for illustration, that British Pig Iron of fair quality 
can be sent to us at a cost of £4, or $20 per ton ; and 
the duty is thereupon fixed at twenty -five per cent., mak- 
ing the cost in this city of the British Pig $ 25 (gold) 
per ton ; while our smelters can just afford to make it at 
that price. But the British product is put down to $ 15 
per ton ; consequently, the duty falls to three-fourths of 
its former amount, reducing the price of British Pig in 
our market below $ 20 per ton, and compelling a large 
proportion of our furnaces to suspend operations. Should 
the British makers decide to reduce, for a time, their 
prices to $ 10 per ton, the duty would fall to $ 2^, 
making the total cost at our wharves $ 12^. Laws thus 
framed, so far from protecting Home Industry, lie in 
wait to ensnare it to its ruin. 

The Iron-masters of Pennsylvania assembled at Phil- 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 325 

adelphia in 1849 to petition Congress against the main- 
tenance of the Polk-Walker ad valorem Tariff of 1840. 
In their memorial,^ they say : — 

" When the price of iron is high abroad, the duty is high at 
home, giving to the American manufactm-er an incidental pro- 
tection which continues so long as the market remains high ; 
but, so soon as the foreign market fluctuates, the duty falls with 
it; so that, at the time when the highest duty is needed to ena- 
ble American manufacturers to sustain a competition with the 
foreign manufacturers, the protection is taken away, — thus 
acting as a sliding scale against the American manufacturer. 
When the Tariflf act of 1846 was passed, the thirty per cent, 
duty on the price of iron at Liverpool ($50) was $ 15 per ton ; 
the cost and duty added made the price $ 65. But, for the 
last two years, the price has fallen from $ 50 to $ 27 per ton, 
and the duty from $ 15 to $ 8 per ton, making the cost of iron 
and duty $ 35 per ton, — a fluctuation of $ 30 per ton. To 
sustain the American manufacturer, he requires the reverse 
of the operation of the present ad valorem duty. When the 
price abroad is highest, he needs the least duty, &nd when it 
is lowest he requires the highest." 

After showing that the American production of Iron 
had decidedly increased under the operation of the Pro- 
tective Tariff of 1842, they proceed to state that 

" The fluctuations in price which have ensued from this 
large production have been of late years so great as to cast in 
the shade all other commercial changes of price. The range 
of these fluctuations in pig iron during the last ten years is 
from £ 1 18 s. to £ 5 12 .s. 6 d, and in bar iron, from £ 4 10 s. 
to % 13, or about two hundred per cent. 

" In one extremity of this fluctuation, British iron becomes 
too high to import under a revenue duty ; in the other, too 
low to admit of home production. In the one extreme, one 
cannot aiford to use it ; in the other, it paralyzes our efforts 
to manufacture for our.selves. 

1 The History of the Iron Trade of the United States. By B. F. 
French. New York, 1858. 



326 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

" The legislation asked by American manufactures deserves 
not the odium so frequently heaped upon it. We know that 
we can furnish to the consumers of this country a million of 
tons of iron cheaper and better than it can be had abroad. 
We ask for defence against those commercial fluctuations 
which occur in G-reat Britain, from causes wholly originating 
there, and which, while they thrust down the prices of iron 
there far below the cost of making, throw large and irregular 
quantities into our ports, disturbing the regular course of in- 
dustry here ; breaking down our markets, and carrying ruin 
at each such invasion into many establishments. If we ask 
aid against such irregularities, it is no more than we should 
be obliged to do if the manufacture in the United States were 
as greatly developed as in Great Britain, and enjoying, in all 
respects, equal advantages. If that were the case, each of the 
equally powerful competitors would seek to relieve their 
home markets in seasons of depression, by thrusting the re- 
jected surplus upon his rival ; and each would seize the op- 
portunity of high prices in the other to make large exports, 
until both markets, unable to maintain any high prices to 
compensate for unfavorable periods, would sink into hopeless 
depression, and the business perish or be greatly impaired. 
Against such consequences, both would appeal to their re- 
spective governments for protection, not for monopoly, — :for 
that security against ruinous fluctuations, and that regularity 
in sales indispensable to the success of industry. Competi- 
tors at home can observe their mutual progress, and take 
their measures of defence in time ; but that competition which 
comes from abroad cannot be watched, nor preparations made 
for its sudden inroads. If the British manufacturer is pre- 
vented from flooding our markets at less than the average 
price upon which his business thrives, a mere revenue duty 
will be ample protection against the great advantage he en- 
joys, of employing labor at less than half the cost paid in the 
United States." 

As to the effect of Protection on prices, a forcible state- 
ment was made by the Committee on Iron of the friends 
of Dpmestic Industry at their Convention held in this 
City in November, 1831. They say : — 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 327 

" The average price of bar iron in 1828 was $ 118|^. In that 
year, an addition to the duty on hammered iron was made of 
$ 4.40 per ton, and on rolled of $ 7. In the following year, 
the price fell to $ 114|^, and in 1830 to $96|; showing a 
decline in two years of $2 If per ton in face of the in- 
creased duty above mentioned; a decline effected exclusively 
by domestic competition, inasmuch as no corresponding de- 
cline took place abroad^ and the fall here was greatest in those 
viarkets which are inaccessible to foreign iron." 

It is remarkable that our Free-Traders, who harp so 
constantlj on the practice and experience of other civil- 
ized nations as approving or confirming their theories, 
rarely or never allude to the strong preference of nearly 
all Europe for specific duties. The Zoll-Verein of Ger- 
many taxes nearly or quite every import by weight, — 
so much per pound, per cwt., per ton, — and this basis 
of taxation is very generally preferred for its honesty, its 
simplicity, and its inflexibility. In an inquiry made in 
1840 by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, 
whereof that eminent Free-Trader, Joseph Hume, was 
Chairman, Dr. John Bowring (also a decided Free-Trader) 
testified ^ as follows : — 

" Question 831. — What manufactures have made and are 
making most progress in Germany ? Answer. — Certainly, 
those which have grown up spontaneously, without any pro- 
tection. 

" Q. 832. — What are they? A. — The hosiery trade is the 
most remarkable. I believe at this moment the cotton- 
frames of Saxony are equal to, if they do not exceed in num- 
ber, those of this country. The manufactures which are suf- 
fering most in Saxony are the manufactures of modern in- 
troduction, particularly their spinning factories, which have 
grown up since the introduction of the Prussian tariff. 

" Q. 833. — Then do you consider the Prussian tariff a Pro- 

1 Report of the Select Committee on Import Duties, together with 
the Minutes of Evidence : Ordered by the House of Commons to b« 
printed. August 6, 1840- 



328 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

tective tariff to manufacturers ? A. — Protective to a certain 
extent. 

" Q. 834. — What is the principle on which the German 
commercial tariff is founded ? A. — As respects manufac- 
tures, it was intended that the maximum duty should be ten 
per cent. ; but effect has not been given to that intention ; for, 
on a great number of articles, the duty is from sixty to one 
hundred per cent. 

" Q. 835. — Has that been in consequence of taking the duty 
by weight? A. — Yes. The finer articles pay a duty not 
exceeding ten per cent. ; but the duty on the coarser articles 
is very high, and really prohibitory. 

" Q. 836. — Is not that operation greatly against British 
commerce ? A. — Decidedly. This system of taking duty 
by weight was recognized by Mr. Huskisson in 1826, with 
reference to silk ; and it is notorious that, while it was the 
intention of Parliament to levy only thirty per cent., there are 
a great many cases in which fifty or sixty are levied under our 
tariff; we have introduced a standard of value with a standard 
of weight, and the complication has thwarted the purposes 
of the law. The result of this has been that, while the inten- 
tion of Parliament was only to raise thirty per cent., fifty and 
sixty are occasionally taken upon silk goods from Grermany, 
and France, and Switzerland." 

I call the especial attention to this testimony of the 
Free Trade essayists who are accustomed to assert that 
the duties imposed by the ZoU-Verein are limited to 
ten per cent. Dr. Bo wring had just made a careful 
scrutiny on the spot of the provisions and operation of 
the ZoU-Verein, and spoke from thorough knowledge. 

To similar effect, Mr. John Dillon, also an intense 
Free-Trader, of the Silk house of Morrison, Dillon & Co., 
London, testified as follows : — 

" Question 2,936. — Would you levy duties by weight or ad 
valorem f Answer. — That is a very difficult question ; there 
are strong objections to both modes. The fairest mode, theo- 
retically, is upon the value ; but to that very great practical 
objections lie. It is exposed to evasion, and is constantly 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 329 

evaded. It is admitted almost by all, and few attempt to deni/, 
that, when they make returns of value, they make false re- 
turns ; it is done in the most open, undisguised manner 

Aware of these evasions, the Government have chosen, having 
the option of two modes, generally to charge by weight. To 
that mode, there are these objections: tha;t the parties who, 
from greater capital or talent, are enabled to buy abroad 
cheaper, pay a higher rate of duty per cent, upon the cost- 
price than those who buy badly ; and that, when the duty is so 
high as thirty per cent., makes a serious difference. Still, upon 
the whole, I think the best plan for the legislature to adopt 
is to levy the duty by weight ; not that I think there are no 
objections to that mode, but because, in the choice of evils, 
that is the least." 

Mr. Dillon seems to think that, where one importer 
has bought his goods twenty-five per cent, cheaper than 
a rival, he ought to pay twenty-five per cent, less duty 
on them, — an opinion which I do not share. 



Early in the last session of the Thirtieth Congress, the 
Hon. James Thompson (a Democrat of the Pennsylvania 
variety) was enlightening the House, ^ after the fashion 
of his kind, on the subject of the Tariff, — trying hard 
to steer midway between Revenue and Protection, — de- 
nouncing in one breath the Tariti" of 1842 and that of 
1846, — and saying : — 

" Now, Sir, what is the remedy for all this ? It is plain. 
Specific duties, — moderate specific duties, — moderate, not 
inconsistent with revenue. Take Iron (Pig) as an example : 
fix a price for it, — say $20 or $25 per ton, — calculate 
it at $ 20, if you please : say thirty per cent, on this valua- 
tion ; this would be six dollars. Now, Sir, when it would 
become abundant abroad, and should come in at nine dol- 
lars, (the valuation per ton,) you would still get your six 
dollars on the ton ; and the more that should come in, (the 
evidence of superabundance and want of market abroad,) the 

1 December 19, 1848. See Congressional Globe, p €4. 



339 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

more revenue there would aqcrue to the country. Let this 
be, the system in regard to the great articles of manufacture 
and produce of the country. Specific duties would give sta- 
bility- Our affairs would not be made to fluctuate, nor our 
revenue either. 

" Mr. C J, Ingeesoll, of Pennsylvania, inquired if his col- 
league did not consider specific duties necessary on Liquors, 
Wines, and Brandies. 

" Mr. Thompson. — I do not know, I cannot answer. I do 
not deal in those articles. 

" Mr. Ingeesoll. — You will, if you consider the interest of 
the country. 

" Mr. Thompson. — I cannot charge my colleague — for 
whom I have the highest regard — with any want of consis- 
tency, not in the least But it seems to be within my recol- 
lection that my colleague, at the last session of Congress, 
proposed a reduction of the duties on Liquors to fifteen per 
cent. 

'■ Mr. Ingersoll. — I proposed it; for there ought, no doubt, 
to be a reduction ; but it ought to be a reduction to Specific 
Duties: they are a good deal better than your Ad Valorems. 

" Mr. Thompson. — I am opposed to Ad Valorems, as uni- 
versally applied. I think it a mistaken policy in every point 
of view. I am in favor of reasonable Specific Duties, and op- 
posed to Minimums. 

"Mr. Greeley of New York. — Will the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania be good enough to tell us how we can have 
Specific Duties without minimums ? ■ 

"Mr. Thompson. — I think there is a difference between 
them; so thought the framers of the Tariff of 1842. They 
fixed by law an artificial value, without any regard to the real 
value, and assessed a duty equal to the whole value in some 
cases, without any regard to supply, demand, market, or any- 
thing else. 

•' Voices. — You are wrong. 

" Mr. Thompson. — I am not wrong, I think. The Tariff of 
1842 contained Specific Duties, and Minimums, not as a con- 
sequence of Specific Duties, but as a consequence of the Ad 
Valorem system. Without critically inquiring into the mat- 
ter, I have not taken the terms as convertible. At all events, 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 331 

these Minimums, to a greater extent than anything else, over- 
threw the Tariff of 1842." 

The above is, I judge, not much more muddled than 
the average of Congi-essional disquisitions on the various 
and important practical questions which must be de- 
cided in framing or revising a tariff. Judge Thompson 
was anxious to sail between wind and water, — to favor 
such Protection as was obviously required by and con- 
ducive to the well-being of Pennsylvania, and to oppose 
or ignore all other. Now a Specific impost is especially 
applicable to Iron, the Pennsylvania staple, while Amer- 
ican Textile Fabrics were then almost confined to New 
England, where the larger part of them are probably 
still produced. The only possible way of avoiding or 
modifying the application to these of Ad Valorem 
duties, luiless we adopt the Zoll-Verein method of put- 
ting all AV^oollens into the scales, and charging as much 
per pound (and thus a good deal more per j^ard) on 
superfine Broadcloths as on the coarsest Blankets or 
Carpets, is by a resort to the Minimum principle as 
above illustrated. This allows duties to be adjusted 
with very considerable regard to the value of the respec- 
tive articles imported, yet interpose a decided obstacle 
to the importation of cheap, showy, worthless goods on 
the pa3'ment of merely nominal duties. In other 
words : a Minimum is a device for rendering Ad Va- 
lorem duties as nearly Specific as the nature of the ar- 
ticle taxed will allow. 

A correspondent of The Times (London) writing^ 
from Manchester in the interest of the manufacturers 
and exporters of that city, explains the existing depres- 
sion of the Cotton manufacture by the failure of the 
sanguine expectations formerly entertained of a large 

1 Published September 27, 1869. 



332 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

demand for British fabrics in France, through the oper- 
ation of the Cobden-ChevaHer treaty. The writer vin- 
dicates the British negotiators of that treaty as fol- 
lows : — 

" In the first place, it should be remembered that the start- 
ing-point of Mr. Cobden, in the inculcation of Free Trade prin- 
ciples in France, was simply a promise from the Grovernment 
of that country that, in any treaty that might be agreed upon, 
the duties on British manufactures should not exceed 30 per 
cent. ; and, in criticising the labors of those who arranged the 
details of the treaty, it should be borne in mind that any con- 
cessions from this stand-point were absolutely wrung from 
French officials thoroughly imbued with a spirit of Protection- 
ism, or sworn to the interests of French manufacturers. It 
has often been laid to the charge of the gentlemen who repre- 
sented the English manufacturers that their mission was inef- 
ficiently performed, and that the representatives of French 
industry succeeded in stealing a march on them, and in gain- 
ing a decided advantage for their own manufactures. In 
answer to this, the English delegates reply that a very few 
days' negotiation served to convince them that they had un- 
dertaken a conflict with the prejudices of men who looked 
with the utmost jealousy on foreign competition, and by 
whom the principles of Free Trade were hardly understood, or, 
at any rate, but imperfectly appreciated. A hard struggle of 
many days for the admission of an ad valorem principle ended 
in a complete refusal on the part of the French ; and, finally, 
the present most unsatisfactory Tariff was submitted to in 
the way of ' Hobson's choice,' but certainly not as the em- 
bodiment of what the English representatives considered 

either just or desirable The thin end only of the wedge 

could, however, be inserted ; and it was hoped that such 
commercial results as the treaty might produce, added to the 
hoped-for weakening of Protectionist feeling in France, might, 
in future negotiations, influence the adoption of a scale of du- 
ties more likely to create a market for the productions of this 
country. In consequence of the specific character of the pres- 
ent Tariff, the most favorable time for the English exporter 
of cotton goods must be when prices rule highest, inasmuch 



SPECIFIC — AD VALOREM — MINIMUM. 333 

as the duty then bears the smallest relation to their value ; 
and thus it is that our largest exports to France were made 
during the American war, when the value of cotton goods 
was unusually inflated, and when the duty amounted only to 
from 7^ to 10 per cent. With a decline in prices came a de- 
cUne in the consumption of English goods in France ; and so 
small has the trade now become that it exists only in name, 
and the few houses which in this country attempt to maintain 
it can only do so by narrowly watching the fluctuations of the 
respective markets, or by limiting their operations to those 

fabrics to which the Tariff gives the highest preference 

The following figures will show the high rate at which the 
duties now stand, and they also suggest the improbability 
of any future fluctuations in the value of cotton, placing the 
trade in a more advantageous position. Average duty on all 
classes during the American war (say, cotton at 2 s. per 
pound), about 10 per cent. Average duty at the same time 
on the sorts of goods most exported, about 8 per cent. Aver- 
age duty on all classes at to-day's prices for goods, about 16 
per cent. Average on all sorts of goods at the probable fu- 
ture ruling value (say, cotton at Sd. per pound), about 20 per 
cent. Average on sorts most exported at future ruling prices, 
about 17 per cent. It is natural that the exporter should 
select for shipment those articles to which the duty is most 
favorable ; but it thus appears that, even on those sorts, he 
cannot escape a duty averaging about 17 per cent. Next iii 
objection to the high character of the tariff comes the erratic 
and almost inexplicable application. To make this appar- 
ent, one has only to refer to the fact that, for purposes of 
taxation, cotton fabrics are grouped in three classes, distin- 
guished by the width and weight of the various cloths. These 
groups are again subjected to subdivisions, distinguished by 
the number of threads in the square inch; making in all, for 
plain goods alone, nine separate standards of tariff, each of 
which must be laboriously groped out by the custom-house 
officers with measure, scales, and whaling-glass. Such an 
utterly illogical method of fixing duties leads to the most 
absurd inconsistencies in their application ; and we thus find 
the ingenuity of the exporter stimulated to the utmost in order 
to pass his highly taxed fabrics under a lower classificdtiotl than 



334 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

is assigned to them / in fact, the issue of his business often de- 
pends on the success or otherwise of this deception." 

I have printed so much of this letter as serves to show 
the influence and working of Ad Valorem and Specific 
duties respectively. The writer — who takes throughout 
what I may distinguish as the bagman's view of the 
whole matter — of course thinks a low Ad Valorem duty 
just what is wanted to restore the markets of France 
to the looms of Manchester, — which, to his mind, is 
the great end to be achieved. He insists that there 
is little difference between the cost of making cotton 
fabrics in the two countries, harps on the stupid preju- 
dice of Frenchmen against buying from England fabrics 
which they can easily make at home, and makes out, to 
the satisfaction, doubtless, of the owners of British spin- 
ning and weaving machinery, that the French should be 
induced to abandon the treaty arrangement and substi- 
tute for it a ten per cent. Ad Valorem duty ; but I can- 
not glean from his statement that any benefit is likely 
to result to the French from an adoption of his policy ; 
■wherefore, I conclude that it is not very likely to pre- 
vail. Evidently the French "don't see it." 

The above illustrations suffice, I judge, to elucidate 
the nature and radical differences of the rival modes of 
imposing or estimating Duties on Imports. My own 
judgment decidedly favors the making (by means of 
Minimums where the end can no otherwise be attained) 
of every duty Specific, to the utmost possible extent. 
Unlike Mr. Dillon, I consider the fact that an importer 
has bought (or made) his goods twenty per cent, cheaper 
than another can buy them, no reason whatever why he 
should pay twenty per cent, less duty on their importa- 
tion. I hold it a requirement of honest trade as well as 
honest industry that one man's imports should pay the 



SPECinC — AD VALOREM — MINDIUM. 335 

same as another's, and I repel the suggestion that Spe- 
cific Duties bear heaviest on the poor, because they pur- 
chase inferior goods. If it be the fact that the poor 
buy poor goods, I find in that fact an explanation of 
their poverty, — a cause as well as a consequence. If 
they do not comprehend that thoroughly good fabrics 
are cheaper than poor, — that a poor man's wife or daugh- 
ter may wisely prefer for her dress an excellent Gingham 
or De Laine to a flimsy, shabby Silk, — their knowledge 
should be extended and their taste improved. In my 
view, it is a weighty recommendation of Specific Duties 
that they inevitably and strongly tend to prevent the 
importation of inferior and worthless goods, by taxing 
them as high per yard or per pound as the excellent 
wares and fabrics which they, outwardly resembling, 
follow afar off, and would fain be mistaken for. If tlie 
day shall be hastened by Specific Duties, in which no 
one can afford to imjwrt any other than a thoroughly 
good article of its kind, I shall hail it as a foretaste of 
the Millennium. 

[Note. — By the Tariff of 1842, all imported Wines were 
charged moderate but Specific Duties. The Walker Tariff, of 
1846, upset all this, admitting every description of Wine at 
an Ad Valorem duty of forty per cent. Hon. Thomas Cor- 
win, as Secretary of the Treasury, reported to Congress in 
1850, that the same description of Wines were invoiced, un- 
der the latter of the.se Tariffs, but little more than one third 
the prices at which they were entered under the former, 
which afforded no inducement to under valuation.] 



336 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



XXIV. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

I HAVE hitherto presented at some length the consid- 
erations which seem to me to render the maintenance of 
a Protective Tariff expedient and beneficent. I have 
contemplated more directly the case of our own country, 
because of my special interest in her welfare, and be- 
cause I am more familiar with the essential facts in her 
case than I am with the corresponding facts in the his- 
tory, resources and position, of an}^ other people. Wheth- 
er it might or might not be well for Great Britain to 
have all the Ore that is dug, and all the Cotton, Wool, 
Flax, Hemp, &c., that are grown on the globe shipped to 
her ports, utilized in her furnaces and factories, and sent 
abroad for sale in a manufactured form, I have not so 
closely studied, and do not decide ; yet I am sure that 
it would not be best for the Laboring Class generally, 
and I doubt that it would be best for that portion of the 
British people in particular. For I cannot shut my eyes 
to the truth that, other things being equal, the farther 
a staple is transported from its producers for fabrication, 
the larger is the percentage of its value which must be 
abstracted from the proceeds to pay the cost of such 
transportation ; and this percentage must be deducted 
from the avails accruing to Labor. If we send Apples 
to Havana in order to buy Cuban Oranges with the pro- 
ceeds, we should be very unreasonable were we to expect 
to receive so many Apples for each bushel or barrel of 
Oranges as the Cuban consumers gave for them ; and 
so with everything exported and imported. We should 



CONCLUSIONS. 337 

be reconciled to receiving fewer Oranges than the num- 
ber of Apples we sent, by the consideration that Oranges 
grow luxuriantly in Cuba and are grown with difficulty 
or not at all here ; and, so far as contrasted peculiarities 
of soil or climate dictate such exchanges, they are abun- 
dantly justified. But the case is entirely different with 
regard to Satinets or Sheetings, Nails or Needles, which 
may be made nearly or quite as well (that is, with as 
Httle labor) in one country as another. Show me that 
our country lacks the raw material or other natural 
facilities for producing any or all of these, and I wiU 
agree that she should not make the attempt ; but, if the 
reason urged for not attempting it be the greater aggre- 
gation of capital, machinery, skill, &c., which a thousand 
years' effort and experience have achieved for a rival 
nation, while these have been denied to or not yet at- 
tained by us, then I hold that a fallacious reason, which 
ought to be overruled and rejected. If we lack experi- 
ence, let us acquire it ; if our inferiority inheres in 
unopened mines and unbuilt railroads, factories, or fur- 
naces, let us provide whatever we lack, and thus qualify 
ourselves for supplying om* own wants under every pos- 
sible advantage. The reasons which dictate abstinence 
from any effort on our part to grow Coffee or Cimiamon, 
Cloves or Cacao, have no existence or no application 
when we contemplate the production or fabrication of 
Plaids or Cassimeres, Gloves or Ginghams, which may 
be produced with as little labor here as elsewhere. 

A true Political Economy, in my conception, regards 
with especial interest and favor the producers and pro- 
duction of wealth. If there be a community of ten 
thousand jjersons whereof one-half are of fit age to earn 
something, it dislikes to see half this productive force 
dissipated in subsidiary and non-productive employments, 
such as the various departments of tx*ansportation and 

I* V 



338 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

traffic. It does not blindly, sweepingly condemn Trade 
as useless and unprofitable to the community; for it rec- 
ognizes the beneficence of a diversity of pursuits, and 
knows that the efficiency of Labor is thereby promoted ; 
it realizes that, where each labors only in that vocation 
for which he is best fitted by skill and experience, ex- 
changes of products are inevitable ; and that these fall 
naturally, if not necessarily, into the hands of a class 
devoted to and presumptively qualified to eifect them 
with celerity, economy, and sabstantial justice. But 
Commerce should be the servant, not the master, of In- 
dustry, which is better served, and at far less cost, where 
the exchangers are few and the exchanges direct and 
simple, than where they are needlessly complicated and 
absorb a large share of the ability and force of a com- 
munity. Doubtless, if all om* Clothing as well as our 
Cloths were fabricated in Europe, we should have a 
larger and (for a time) more flourishing Commerce than 
we now have, with more persons living and making for- 
tunes by Trade ; but the dividend to Labor from the 
aggregate product of our National Industry must be pro- 
portionally and absolutely less than it now is, while the 
proportion of our people who could find no work would 
be far greater. Unless Europe could make our Clothes 
for us in half the time required to make them here, • — 
which she certainly could not, — there would be a loss 
to us and a loss to mankind of the cost of sending our 
Wheat, Wool, Cotton, Cheese, Meat, &c., &c., thither 
to pay for our Clothes and bringing over those Clothes 
and diffusing them throughout our country; and this 
loss would by no means be limited to the heavy cost of 
transportation both ways, but would be swelled im- 
mensely by the hazards of shipwreck, fire, and damage 
during transit, as well as by the charges and profits of 
those through whom the exchanges were efiected. 



CONCLUSIONS. 339 

^-- ** Then," says a Free-Trader, '* those exchanges, prov« 
ing unprofitable, would be superseded, and cease." 
. " Unprofitable," to whom ? Not to the exchangers, 
who, having all the clews in their hands, would be liv- 
ing and generally prospering by their business, and 
would be very likely to make efforts and sacrifices to 
subvert any rivalry that threatened to supplant them. 
And their command of capital, experience, skill, and the 
channels of ti-ade, would give them a very great advan- 
tage over any rash adventurer who should attempt to 
rival them by making Clothes on our own soil. In- 
evitably, those who had long, enjoyed the profits of 
Clothes-making would display more elegant, attractive, 
and even cheaper garments than their raw competitors, 
and triumphantly ask the public to decide whether the 
labor which produced the Wheat, Cotton, Wool, To- 
bacco, &c., wherewith their goods were paid for, was not 
as truly American as that of the botches and extortion- 
ers who impudently besought our people to buy clumsy, 
ill-made, unsightly, misfitting garments at exorbitant 
prices, under the absurd pretence that they would 
thereby encourage Home Industry. 

There are men as well as women in this country who 
now have their garments mainly made in Europe ; and, 
if they honestly pay the duties charged on their impor- 
tation, I make no objection. They help to defray the 
heavy burden of our Public Debt ; and they do not ma- 
terially depress the wages of labor. If we had never im- 
posed a tax on such importation, there would be twenty 
garments imported where one is now, and the art of 
making elegant, fashionable Clothing would not have ad- 
vanced among us nearly so far as it has done. Now let 
tis suppose that in such case an American, deprecating 
such importation of our more costly and elegant Cloth- 
ing as prejudicial to the National well-being, should re- 



340 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

solve to have all his own clothes made in this country, 
what would he thereby effect 1 The price of bis pro- 
duce would remain at the low level induced by our ne- 
cessity of exporting enormously and glutting the mar- 
kets of Europe in order to pay for our Clothes and other 
imports, and he must be content with such garments 
as the rude and low estate of the Clothes-making art 
among us enabled us to produce, and at such prices 
would naturally result. But let us resolve and enact as 
a people that we will henceforth encourage and favor as 
Clothes-making on our own soil by taxing the importa- 
tion of foreign-made Clgthes, and the case would be 
bravely altered. First-rate tailors and milliners would 
be thereby incited to settle among us, bringing hither 
their capital, skill, and experience ; our own clothes- 
makers, having a larger and steadier demand for their 
products, would be enabled and impelled to extend 
their operations and thus cheapen their products ; the 
expansion and stability thus given to American Clothes- 
making would create or insure larger and better home 
markets for our Food, Wool, Cotton, &c. ; and thus the 
beneficent results vainly sought through spasmodic, 
isolated, individual effort, would be readily and fully se- 
cured through that Protection which is another name 
for National Cooperation to diminish the proportion of 
exchangers or traffickers, and increase that of effective 
producers of wealth. The difference is the same as that 
between constructing the Erie Canal upon the resources 
and credit of the State, and attempting to construct it 
by inducing every one to dig out so much of the bed as 
traversed his own farm or wood-lot. 

Let me further elucidate ray difference with the Free- 
Traders by an incident that seems to me to show that 
their idea of cheapness is mole-eyed and delusive. A 
citizen of North Canaan, Connecticut, had always op- 



CONCLUSIONS. 341 

posed Protection as calculated to enrich the manufac- 
turer at the expense of his own class (the farmers), 
prior to 1842, when he contracted for clearing one hun- 
dred acres of his woodland at $ 10 per acre in addition 
to what could be made of the wood. Before this job 
was completed, the Tariff of that year was passed ; and 
now a furnace was put into blast and the production of 
Pig Iron from charcoal commenced in his neighborhood ; 
when the iron-makers paid him $ 20 per acre for the 
wood on two hundred acres of just such land as he had 
that year paid $ 10 per acre for clearing. Here was a 
difference of $ 6,000 made to one farmer between having 
our Iron made at home and importing it ; and that farm- 
er was enabled to see that Protection benefited others 
than manufacturers. 

The whole country is thickly dotted with cases es- 
sentially like this. For instance : I bought, eighteen 
months ago, a rugged wood-lot from which the wood had 
just been cut, and w-hich was largely covered with the 
shrub known as Laurel (Rhododendron, or Kalmia), 
which I would gladly have extirpated, that trees might 
replace it. I naturally inquired for some use to be made 
of this shrub, and learned that a manufactory in Con- 
necticut, forty miles away, would buy it at $ 6 per cord, 
— less than I must pay for its conveyance thither. 
Had that factory been in my neighborhood, my Laurel 
would have been property, whereas it is now merely 
obstruction and nuisance. And it would be difficult to 
establish in any rural neighborhood a factory that would 
not give value to many products or substances previ- 
ously worthless, if not worse. 

These, then, are my general deductions from the facts 
and considerations set forth in the foregoing essays : — 

I. Protection is another name for Labor-Saving 
through Cooperation, by bringing producer and con- 



342 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

sumer nearer each other, enabling them to interchange 
their respective products directly and cheaply, instead 
of circuitously, through several intermediates, and at 
great cost. In thus reducing the proportion of ex- 
changers and increasing that of producers in a commu- 
nity, it inevitably increases the aggregate product of 
human effort, and thus enhances the recompense of Labor. 
As Canals and Railroads have increased production and 
wealth by reducing the cost of transportation, so Pro- 
tection achieves the same end by shortening the dis- 
tances for which transportation is required. 

II. Protection has been seen, in the case of the French 
production of Beet Sugar, to call into existence a new 
department of Industry, with signal advantage to all 
concerned. The people of France consume far more 
Sugar than they ever did or could afford to do until its 
production had been naturalized on their own soil. They 
are so supplied cheaper than they ever were while they 
procured their Sugar from abroad ; the labor which pro- 
duces it is better paid than it was or could be in the 
absence of this industry ; the fertility of their soil has 
been increased, and even their annual product of Grain 
and Meat has been enlarged, by the naturalization among 
them of the Beet culture, whereby the earth is pulver- 
ized and fertilized to a depth without precedent, and the 
following crops of Wheat largely augmented, while the 
leaves and residuum of the Beet subsist and fatten large 
numbers of Cattle. And, so far is it from truth that 
an industry once protected calls ever for more and high- 
er Protection, that Raw Sugar of excellent quality is 
now sold by wholesale in France at an average of five 
cents per pound, and its producers ask no Protection 
whatever, but acquiesce without objection in an excise 
or internal tax on their product fully equal to that borne 
by the Cane Sugar produced in the tropical colonies of 
France. 



CONCLUSIONS. 343 

III. While there has been an advance in the average 
prices of our Agricultural staples since the passage of 
our first decidedly Protective TariiF in 1824, there is no 
single Manufacture protected by that Tariff and by its 
Protective successors which has not been reduced in 
cost to the great mass of our consumers ; and that re- 
duction is generally greatest on the articles which have 
been most stringently, persistently protected. Iron and 
its Manufactures, Woollen Fabrics of all kinds. Window 
Glass, De Laines, Ginghams, and even Salt, illustrate 
this truth. 

IV. While it is certain that we already produce very 
many Wares and Fabrics, such as Edge Tools, Nails, 
Shovels, Spades, Satinets, Cassi meres, Sheetings, Prints, 
De Laines, the less sumptuous Shawls, Clocks, Watches, 
&c., &c., — far cheaper than Europe ever afforded them 
till we begun to make for ourselves, — cheaper than we 
could now obtain an adequate supply abroad, if we had 
not naturalized their production on our own soil, — it is 
probable that some articles, like Pig Iron, whereof the 
cost inheres scarcely at all in the material employed, 
but wholly in the quantum of labor required to produce 
them, will be produced at a lower money cost abroad 
than among us, and that, though we have cheapened, 
and shall doubtless continue to cheapen them, by dis- 
coveries, by inventions, by larger aggregations of capital, 
and by a riper experience, yet — the discoveries and in- 
ventions of our people being speedily appropriated by 
our foreign rivals — it is probable that, so long as Labor 
remains relatively dear in this country and cheap in 
Europe, our producei-s of these articles will be sharply 
rivalled, sometimes undersold, and, in the absence of 
Protection might be, as they have hitherto been, under- 
mined and broken down by this unfair, unequal compe- 
tition. To me, it seems clearly not best for my covm- 



344 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

try, for Labor, nor for human well-being, that such pros- 
tration and collapse of important branches of our Na- 
tional Industry should be permitted ; and I hold that its 
legislative prevention by tax on the foreign rivals in our 
markets of our producers of wealth is as justifiable and 
beneficent as the fortification of our coasts and harbors 
against possible foreign aggression. 

V. The true, beneficent relation of the more ad- 
vanced or perfected to the less developed and immature 
industries of diverse nations seems to me one of friendly 
encouragement, not depressing, destructive competition. 
If (for example) the people of Liberia should desire next 
year to start a manufactory of Ploughs and other Agricul- 
tural Implements, I could wish that the plough-makers 
of Europe and America would make to that factory a 
present of approved patterns and labor-saving machines, 
and in every way bid the new plough-makers God speed : 
I should deeply regret to hear that, instead of this, they 
had sent out large invoices of farming implements to 
their agents in Liberia, with instructions to sell them 
below cost till their upstart Liberian rival had been 
broken down. In my view, this course would be con- 
sistent neither with a Christian spirit nor with the 
highest good of mankind. And, since I realize that this 
latter course is far more likely to be taken than that 
which I greatly prefer, I hold it a duty of Governments 
to protect the imperilled, struggling industries of their 
peoples from overthrow by a competition which, in its 
headlong clutch at personal, special emolument, tramples 
ruthlessly on the just claims of Labor, and is deaf to the 
pleadings of Humanity. 

VI. I am no more the champion of the Laboring 
Class, inaccurately so designated, — that is, of those who 
sell their services for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly 
wages, — than of any other. I realize that this class is 



CONCLUSIONS. 345 

as likely as any other to be selfish, rapacious, wrong- 
headed, domineering, tyrannical. I do not doubt that 
what are called " Strikes " for wages are often mistaken, 
and that resistance to their exactions is then an impera- 
tive necessity as well as a social duty. I feel that King 
Mob may be as irrational and headstrong a despot as 
any other monarch. Yet I cannot forget that the La- 
boring Class, so called, must, like any other, stand up 
for its own rights, or be content to see them trampled 
under foot ; and that the strength given it by organiza- 
tion, superinduced upon numbers, is its only effectual 
defence against the else unchecked tyranny of Capital, 
eager for profit and reckless of others' rights. The 
power developed by combination may be abused, like any 
other power ; but Labor is helpless and a prey without 
it. I hold, therefore, that Trades' Unions and similar 
compacts, though often abused, have, on the whole, ef- 
fected signal good ; that Labor is to-day better paid, and 
its rights better secured, than they otherwise would or 
could be. But all this is " smoke to the eyes and vin- 
egar to the nose " of the Free-Traders, whose fundamen- 
tal principle it impugns, whose entire philosophy it con- 
flicts with. Hence, Professor Perry is impelled to say ^ 
that 

" The guilds of the Middle Ages, and the Trades' Unions 
of our own day, are examples of voluntary associations for 
the sake [purpose ?] of regulating the wages of their members 
by combined action. The restrictions in the old guilds, limit- 
ing the number of apprentices to each artisan, determining 
the time a man should serve before he could become a master, 
and so on, were veiy onerous, and have mostly passed away. 
The Trades' Unions of this country have never been very 
popular or successful. The Printers' Union in the principal 
cities has just been dissolved amid universal contempt. The 
spij'it of Political Economy, which is the spirit of freedom, is 

1 Elements of Political Economy, p. 117, 118. 
15* 



346 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

against such associafioiis for such purposes. If any man has a 
service to render, let him offer it freely, and make the best 
terms he can with whoever wants it." 

This is undoubtedly the dictate of Free Trade; but 
the Laboring Class dissents from and will never agree to 
it. It knows that whatever there may be of improve- 
ment in its condition has been achieved by standing 
shoulder to shoulder, and regarding the interest of each 
member as the interest of the whole class ; and it will 
not consent to disarm and disband in the face of antago- 
nisms which stand ready to take advantage of its disor- 
dered ranks in the future as they have done in the past. 
It may sometimes abuse the might it has evolved 
through Combination ; but it can never afford to discard 
the instrumentality and definitively renounce the powen 

VII. CooperMion — the organization of workmen into 
bodies capable of selling their own labor or its product 
by wholesale, and fairly dividing or allotting its proceeds, 
or of consumers to purchase in gross whatever they 
may require, and divide or apportion it at the least pos- 
sible cost — seems to be the step next ahead in the in- 
dustrial and social progress of the civilized world. Con- 
sidering how protracted, how arduous, how costly, has 
been the struggle to overthrow an abuse so flagrant as 
Slavery, we ought not to expect that this will be accom- 
plished in one generation, nor in two ; and yet I deem 
its iiltimate success inevitable. The economies to be 
realized through Cooperation — economies in rent or 
house-room, in fuel, in the first cost of raw provisions, 
in the preparation of food, in medical service, &c., &c., — 
are so vast and pervading that I do not see how ra- 
tional, iiitelligent beings can long resist or fail to secure 
them. Let us suppose that one thousand heads of fam- 
ilies were firmly banded, under officers implicitly trusted 
and fully worthy of their trust, with a view to the most 



CONCLUSIONS. 347 

effective employment of their labor, and the most 
economical outlay of their means, so that one of their 
number should purchase for cash at wholesale all that was 
required to satisfy their material wants; while anotlier 
devoted his time to finding employment and making 
contracts for their labor ; a third sought out and bar- 
gained for the premises best adapted to afford them the 
required house-room on the most favorable terms ; and 
only the number needed were employed in transforming 
animals into meat, grain into flour or bread, and re- 
ducing every article purchased to the condition most con- 
ducive to the satisfaction of their various needs, — every 
one being required only to earn before spending, and to 
defray his just proportion of the common outlay, — who 
can fully realize the vast economies, both of time and 
means, that would thus be secured] Suppose some 
member of this combination should be allotted, through 
the imperfect working of the machinery, five to ten per 
cent, less than his righteous due, he must still receive 
so much more than he now does or can secure, that his 
casual loss would be swallowed up in his far exceeding 
and enduring gain. It must be that the more intelli- 
gent and capable portion of the Laboring Class is pre- 
pared, or preparing to realize economies so vast and so 
palpable, and that few years can elapse before the desti- 
nies of that class will be moulded, its dependence on more 
favored classes weakened, and its circumstances vastly 
improved, by systematic, pervading Cooperation. After 
that stage in its progress shall have been attained, I feel 
sure that its contributions to the support of the liquor- 
seller, the pi'ofessional gambler, and the purveyor to any 
vicious appetite whatever, will be immeasurably less 
considerable than they have been. 

VIII. Full as our world is of misdirection, misman- 
agement, and waste of ail kinds, the most gigantic of its 



348 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

material calamities are these two : 1. Lack of industrial 
training on the part of at least twenty-five per cent, of 
its boys, and fifty to seventy-five per cent, of its girls ; 
2. (in good part consequent on the former) Lack of 
employment for those who should be, and most of 
them would be, at work if work were proffered them. 
Though we have perhaps as slight a proportion of habit- 
ual, chronic idlers as any other people, yet our loss from 
idleness alone (very much of it involuntary) must 
amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per annum, — 
far more than our average annual losses by flood and fire, 
by frost and drought, by storm and wreck, and by every 
other description of physical calamity. And idleness is too 
often a hereditary disease ; the vagrant or strolling beg- 
gar of one age perpetuating and increasing his kind in 
the vagrants and beggars of the next. Two-thirds of 
our vast and ever increasing array of felons is recruited 
from the ranks of those bred to idleness and unfamiliar 
with any department of productive labor. Among the 
most urgent of our needs is that of Industrial Educa- 
tion for all ; and this is in part met by a multiplication 
and diversification of pursuits, giving employment to a 
wider range of tastes and capacities, and drawing more 
and more into the walks of systematic industry by prof- 
fering more varied incitements thereto. If it seemed 
more profitable to devote all our energies to tilling the 
soil, that seeming would be fallacious, because oblivious 
of the need of a great diversity of pursuits to educe our 
diverse capacities and incite as well as employ our varied 
aspirations and faculties. Industry is the better part of 
the education of a majority of mankind, and its mul- 
tiform lessons should be commended and brought home 
to each and all. 

IX. Labor and the Skill thence resulting, therewith 
combined, being the only property and means of liveli- 



CONCLUSIONS. 349 

hood of a large portion of the community, Government 
should be as solicitous and as vigilant for its due Pro- 
tection as for that of any other individual Property. To 
this end, Patent and Copyright laws are wisely enacted 
and enforced ; to this end, Usury laws (whether wisely 
or unwisely) seek to confine within reasonable bounds 
the rapacity of money-lenders ; to this end, Tariti' acts 
are so shaped that, while they provide the Revenue re- 
quired for the support and efficiency of Government, 
they at the same time defend exposed and imperilled de- 
partments of the National Industry from prostration 
and overthrow by destructive foreign competition. As 
Carlyle well says, the well-being of England should never 
hang suspended on her ability to make cotton-cloth a 
farthing an ell cheaper than any other nation, so I main- 
tain that the livelihood and industrial training of hun- 
dreds of tliousands of our people should not be imper- 
illed by the fact (if fact it be) that the British or any 
other people can make cotton-cloth a farthing an ell 
cheaper than it can be made in this coimtry. 

X. The Free-Traders are accustomed to assure the 
people that they, too, ai'e in favor of a Tarift", not, in- 
deed, for Protection, but for Revenue alone. Assuming 
that they are sincere in this assertion, they seem to me 
the most inconsistent of mortals. Day by day, they pro- 
claim and reiterate that cheapness is desirable, — that 
low prices for Iron, for Fabrics, for Wares, are conducive 
to general prosperity, — and that a duty on an imported 
article injuriously enhances, by nearly its amount, the 
price, not only of whatever is imported subject to that 
duty, but of whatever is made and sold in this country 
in competition with the article thus impoi'ted. Suppose, 
far illustration, we import Six Hundred Thousand tons 
of Iron per annum, and make at home Eighteen Hun- 
dred Thousand tons (and these will be very nearly 



350 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the actual figures for the calendar year 1869) : Let us 
•put the average cost of the imported Iron at $ 40 (gold) 
per ton, and say that the Free-Traders, being in power, 
impose on that Iron a duty of twenty per cent, for 
Revenue solely, making the importers of Iron pay 
$ 4,800,000 per annum into the Treasury. So far, all 
seems easy and natural. But this duty enhances (so they 
assure us) the price not merely of the imported but of the 
home-made Iron also : so that our consumers of Iron are 
compelled by this duty to pay Fourteen Million Four 
Hundred Thousand Dollars into the pockets of the 
American Iron-masters in order that this $ 4,800,000 
may be secured for the Treasury. What sort of econo- 
my, political or otherwise, is this ] Why should the 
consumers of Iron pay this exorbitant sum to favored 
individuals — all of them asserted to be rolling in 
wealth — in order to get an amount so much smaller 
into the Treasury 1 Surely, if the Free-Traders' prem- 
ises are sound (as I feel sure they are not), Tariff 
taxation, though Revenue be its sole object, is the most 
unequal, unjust, injurious mode in which the Treasury 
can be replenished ; and the fact that we are heavily in 
debt and obliged to raise large sums by taxation, should 
dictate the entire abrogation of Duties on Imports, and 
the substitution therefor of some system which would 
not take four dollars from the community for every one 
that it puts into the Treasury. The naked fact that the 
Free-Traders persist in declaring themselves supporters 
of a Tariff for Revenue proves them unsound in their 
fundamental positions or extremely reckless of the pub- 
lic interest and welfare. 

XI. Our Revolutionary patriots were, with few excep- 
tions, farmers; and their statesmen and soldiers were 
generally, like Washington, engaged in cultivating the 
soil. Yet the first Tariff ever framed under our Federal 



CONCLUSIONS. 351 

Constitution declared " the Protection of Manufac- 
tures " to be one of its objects ; and this act received 
the approval of Washington. Jefferson and Madison 
were likewise agriculturists ; Andrew Jackson and Henry 
Clay were the representatives in Congress of constit- 
uencies almost wholly Agricultural ; yet these forcibly 
urged the Protection of Manufactures expressly for the 
benefit of our inland Agriculture, by creating and dif- 
fusing a demand for its produce which should not be 
subject to the fluctuations and caprice of foreign mar- 
kets. " Plant the manufacturer by the side of the 
farmer," said in substance Thomas Jefferson : ^ so said, 
in those identical words, General Jackson, eight years 
later. Not in the interest of a manufacturing class, 
which had as yet no existence, but in order that Agri- 
culture might have a just and sure reward, was the Pro- 
tective policy commended, not by these only, but by 
George Clinton, Simon Snyder, Dewitt Clinton, William 
L. Marcy, and other eminent Governors of States, and 
by a large majority of our most honored statesmen 
of the Revolutionary and the succeeding generation. I 
submit that these were not the dupes of specious 
phrases, nor yet of sordid interests, but that they knew 
whereof they aflirmed, and spoke from personal knowl- 
edge of the disasters which preceded, the blessings 
which followed, the initial triumphs of Protection. 

XII. Monopoly is the restriction to one, or to a small 
class, of the right to make, vend, or use, a certain ar- 
ticle. A man may be loosely said to have a monopoly 
of his own farm or fireside ; but how has any one a 
monopoly of a pursuit which is free to all his country- 
men] and how can that law be said to create a mo- 
nopoly in favor of those now prosecuting a business 
which, inevitably, sti*ongIy, invites others to embark in 

1 Letter to Beiyarain Austin, 1816. 



352 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

that business and partake fully of its gains ] The use 
made of the term Monopoly by Free-Traders seems to 
me an affront to the general intelligence, — an ostenta- 
tious defiance of dictionaries, — an experiment which 
presumes an amazing dearth of common sense. 

XIII. Insidious efforts have long been, and still are 
being, made by Free-Traders to prejudice especially the 
West against Protection, as a device to enrich and ag- 
grandize the East, and particularly New England, at 
the expense of the newer States. If one were to believe 
the speeches made, the editorials written, throughout 
the West, by anti-Protectionists, he would suppose that 
New England had devised and originated Protection to 
subserve her own special ends. Yet History proves 
that New England opposed Protection throughout the 
earlier struggles in its behalf, while the Free West with 
great unanimity forced it upon her, practically con- 
straining her to withdraw her capital and energies in 
good measure from Navigation and Foreign Trade and 
employ them in Manufactures. And now, among the 
duties most vehemently denounced at the West are 
those on Iron, Lumber, and Salt, — all articles largely 
imported and consumed by New England ; none of 
them, to any considerable extent, produced by her 
And, for every furnace and factory built or set to work 
in the East because of the Protective regime inau- 
gurated in 1861, at least two have been, while more are 
about to be, called into being in the West. 

XIV. The striking fact that more immigrants have 
landed on our shores in a single year since our Industry 
was measurably diversified by the naturalization and 
growth of Manufactures, than during the whole forty 
years of our National existence which preceded the 
passage of the Tariff of 1824, and that immigration ia 
more considerable from Ireland and the purely Agricul- 



CONCLUSIONS. 353 

tural portions of Germany than from the far denser 
populations of Great Britain and of those German 
States wherein a mixed industry has taken root, bear 
their own comment. Right well do I comprehend that 
the discovery of Gold in California gave a special im- 
petus to this immigration, and that its volume has not 
always been immediately swelled by a casual triumph 
of Protection, nor diminished by a temporary predomi- 
nance of relative Free Trade. The factories and fur- 
naces called into existence by Protection are not closed 
immediately on the passage of a lower tariff ; no sensible 
man ever imagined that they would be. Important 
branches of Home Manufacture long since attained an 
efficiency and perfection, by the aid of American inven- 
tions, machinery, and skill, that enable them to defy 
foreign rivalry under almost any conditions. It is none 
the less true, however, that Population strongly tends 
in either hemisphere to abandon the regions wholly de- 
voted to Agriculture, and concentrate in districts alive 
and vital with the hiss of steam, the hum of machinery, 
and the roar of wheels, — that the existence and pros- 
perity of manufactures in any country is strongly con- 
ducive, if not indispensable, to the steady, majestic in- 
flux thereto of Immigration. 

XV; Finally, the great truth, so forcibly set forth by 
Mr. Clay in 1832, that Protection has been to us a 
sheet-anchor of Prosperit}^, a mainspring of Progress, 
has not been and can never be explained away. Our 
years of signal disaster and depression have been those 
in which our ports were most easily flooded with foreign 
goods, — those which intervened betwixt the recognition 
of our Independence and the enactment of the Tariff 
of 1789, — those which followed the close of our Last 
War with Great Britain, and were signalized by immense 
importations of her Fabrics, — those of 1837 - 42, when 



354 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

the Compromise of 1833 began to be seriously felt in 
the reduction of duties on imports ; and those of 
1854-67, when the Polk- Walker Tariff of 1846 had 
had time to take full effect. No similarly sweeping re- 
vulsions and prostrations ever took place — I think 
none could take place — under the sway of efficient Pro- 
tection. Said Mr. Clay in 1832, after premising that 
the seven years preceding the passage of the Tariff of 
1824 had been the most disastrous, while the seven fol- 
lowing the passage of that act had been the most pros- 
perous, that our country had ever known, " This trans- 
formation of the condition of the country from gloom 
and distress to brightness and prosperity has been main- 
ly the work of American legislation, fostering American 
indtistry, instead of allowing it to he controlled hy fm^eign 
legislation, cherishing foreign industry P God grant \is 
the wisdom and virtue to press forward on the shining 
path thus opened plainly before us, to the end that our 
Labor may be fully employed and fairly recompensed, 
and that age after age may witness the rapid yet sub- 
stantial progress and growth of our people in all the arts 
of Peace, — all the elements of National well-being ! 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Abolition : each cotton-factory in the South regarded as a citadel of, 24. 

Aborigines (West Indian) : 81. 

Abyssinia : 319. 

ACHABD : 188, 189. 

Adams (President) : 253. 

Africa : penetrated by the Saracens, 16, 62 ; captive negroes introduced from, 
81 ; slavery in, 82 ; South, 288. 

Agassiz (Professor) : 319. 

Agriculture : General Jackson on diversion of Labor from, 35 ; importance of 
near market for the products of, 38 ; the Free Trade fallacy as to the choice 
of two markets, 38 ; the profits of, increased by manufactures, 37 ; belief 
once entertained that the country should be exclusively agricultural, 46 ; the 
inevitable effect, 46 ; prostrated by the influx of British goods after the war 
of 1812-14, 62 ; the great men of early years of the Republic directly or in- 
directly connected with Agriculture, 108 ; nearly unanimous in favor of Pro- 
tection, 108 ; believed it essential in the interests of Agriculture, 108 ; extract 
from Washington's first Annual Mes.<age in favor of promoting manufactures, 
109 ; action of Congress thereon, 109; Alexander Hamilton's Report, 109 ; a 
Committee on Commerce and Manufactures created, 110 ; Washington affirms 
his former views, 110 ; Jefferson on the legitimate objects of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, 110 ; on the maintenance of Protection, 112 ; Madison advocates 
the Protection and Encouragement of Manufactures, 112-114; Dallas on 
the interest of the Agriculturist in Manufactures, 115 ; Newton, of Virginia, 
on the harmony of Interests, 116; William Lowndes reports the Tariff of 1816, 
116 ; Calhoun's remarks in its favor, 117 ; advantages of the measure he sus- 
tained, 118 ; references to the messages of Governors George Clinton, Tomp- 
kins, DeWitt Clinton, and Snyder, as corroborative of the value to agricul- 
ture of Protection, 118 ; the consideration asked for the arguments and views 
of the Fathers, 119 ; the founders of the Republic conversant with Free Trade 
arguments, 133; Webster's Free Trade Speech, 1824, 133; John Randolph 
of Roanoke leads the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133 ; the reasons which 
governed the action of the various States, 1824, 133, 134 ; the votes in the 
House from each State for the Tariff of 1824, 134 ; Dr. Francis Lieber's state- 
ment considered, 135 ; the fallacy thereof, 136 ; the benefit of Protection to 
the Agriculturist, 136 ; secures him manufactures at less cost in produce, 136 ; 
distant markets fluctuating, 137 ; exhaustion of the soil, 137 ; increase in the 
value of Farm Products, Timber, &c., 138 ; Londonderry, N. H., as an illus- 
tration thereof, 139 ; corroborated by the action of the Canadian farmers, 
139 ; Franklin on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home Manuf^c- ' 
tures, 139 ; Henry C. Carey on the value of near markets to farmers, 140; 



356 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

E. B. Ward on the necessity for Protection, 141 ; Adam Smith on the value 
of Manufactures to Agriculture, 142 ; Rev. Lyman Beecher on the encourage- 
ment and successful prosecution of Agriculture, 142 - 144 ; President Monroe 
urges Congress to afford Protection to Manufactures, 144 ; the American Sys- 
tem, 145 ; Protection required in the interests of, 149 ; Manufactures increase 
the i-ecompense of Agricultural Labor, 167 ; the French Minister of, = 190 = ; 
the Sugar Industry of France in connection with agriculture, 199 ; favored in 
all its branches by the Beet Sugar Industry, 202 ; relative situation of our 
great grain-growing districts, 236 ; our policy in regard to agricultural pro- 
ducts, 243; the beneficent influence of Manufactures on Agriculture, 245 = 
276 = ; Immigration inconsiderable while the country was almost exclusively 
agricultural, 307; population tends to abandon purely agricultural regions, 
306 ; Inmiigration very small during the period of low tariffs and exclusive 
devotion to agriculture, 308 ; immigration of the Agricultural and Manufac- 
turing eras compared, 310 ; favorable etfect of Manufactures on Immigration, 
319 ; distant markets for produce capricious, and prices unremunerative, 322 ; 
Protection advocated by our great men in the interests of Agriculture, 350 ; 
adopted that policy from enlightened reasons and experience, 351. 

Alabama : 134 = 168 = 244 = 252. 

Alaska : 319. 

Albany : 1U3. 

Alexandria : 26. 

Alison (Archibald) : 136. 

Almanac (Merchants and Bankers') : 218. 

America : influence of the discovery of, on Commerce, 26 = 61 = , 62 ; exten- 
sion of Slavery in North and South, 81 ; Indians of, 81 ; extent of bondage 
in a century ago, 82, 186. 

America (British) : affords only an inadequate market for Canadian manufkc- 
tures, 38 = 229 = 288 = 313. 

America (Central) : 314. 

America (South) : 62 = 81 = 288 = 312 = 314. 

ANcnoas : 231. 

Anderson : " History of Commerce," 95. 

Apples: 336. 

Arizona : 322. 

Abkwright : 319. 

Ash: 230. 

Asia : 16 = 48 = 62 ; slavery in, 82 = 171 = 288. 

Association : 90. 

AsTOR (.John Jacob) : 20. 

austerlitz : 191. 

Austria : 313. 

Australia : 152, 241, 288, 303. 

Axes : American superior to European, 47 = 105. 

Azores (The) : 312, 314. 

Balance of Trade : how an adverse is injurious, 60 ; the popular feeling right on 
the matter. 60 ; the Free Trade treatment of the subject, 60 ; the Roman Em- 
pire and the drainage of .'specie, 61; beneficial etTects on Europe of the gold from 
America, 61 ; the Free Trade assumption that a country may part with half 
its specie without serious harm, 61 ; the injury entailed by general recourse 
to barter, 61 ; personal recollections of the pecuniary ruin at the close of the 
last war with England, 62; Bankruptcy in New England, 63; pressure of 
Debt in Kentucky and its effects, 63 ; the New York merchants memorialize 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 357 

Congress, 63 ; the mercantile and manufacturing interests ruined, 63 ; gen- 
eral consequences of the export of specie 1815-21 illustrated, 64 ; results of 
scarcity of money summarized, 65 ; Free Trade propositions respecting Im- 
ports and Exports considered, 65 ; evidences of au adverse Balanre of Trade, 
66 ; considerations which should govern Imports and Exports, 67. 

Baltimore : 122. 

Banks : their origin, 71 ; development of banking, 71 ; an illustration of asso- 
ciation, 90. 

Bastiat (Frederic) : 60 ; his treatment of the Balance of Trade question, 66. 

Bayard (William): 222 

Beecher (Rev. Lyman) : on the encouragement and successful prosecution of 
Agriculture, 142. 

Bedford : 167. 

Bedouins : 23. 

Belgium : 150 = 196 = 207 = 298 = 312 = 313 = 314. 

Benton (Hon. Thomas H.) : 135 = 253. 

Bermuda : 148. 

Beet : 187 = 199 = 200 = 201 = 204 = 209 ; see also SuGAE. 

Berezina : 191. 

Berlin : 188. 

BiGELOw (Hon. Erastus B.) : on Wools and Woollens, 296; rebukes the coun- 
terfeiting of foreign trade-marks, 297. 

Blanket.s (Army) : 234. 

Blodget (Samuel): 308. 

Borodino : 191. 

Boston : 290. 

Bowring (Dr. John): 327 = 328. 

Brazil: 231,303. 

Bromwell ( \V. J.) : 308, 309. 

Brooklyn : 265. 

Brocguam (Lord): 93. 

Browne (Ross J.) : observation of, on the Holy Land, 22. 

Buchanan (Pre.Mdent) : 57 = 97. 

Building Societies (Cobperative) : 79. 

Cables : 231. 

Calcutta : 227. 

Calhoun (John C): filmed and advocated the Tariff of 1816,24 ; abandoned 
Protection when he became the foremost champion of Slavery, 24 ; defended 
the proposed duty on Cotton Fabrics in the Tariff of 1816, 117 j his remarks, 
117 = 217 = 323. 

California : 43 = 48 = ; limited its currency to gold and silver, 69 ; the ruling 
rate of interest in, 69; overtrading not prevented by its exclusively specie 
currency, 69, 168 = 241 = 286 = 310 = 321. 

Cambr::leno (Hon. Churchill C): argues that Protection must destroy Reve- 
nue, 250. 

Canada : 38 = 139 = 148 = 260 = 311 = 319. 

Canals : contemplated in New York before the era of Independence, 122 ■, 
Washington interests himself about canals, 123 ; advantages to be derived 
from extended communications, 124 ; canal project, 1791, 124 ; Fulton suggests 
a canal project to Pennsylvania, 125 ; the Erie Canal, 126 ; result of its com- 
pletion, 126; the canal policy of New York opposed with the arguments 
now used against Protection, 128 ; the Erie Canal demonstrating the impor- 
tance of State over individual action, 131 = 340 = 342. 



358 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Cape' OP Good Hope: 303. 

Capital : defined, 40 ; the value of Capital, 41 ; Civilization based on Capital 
and systematic Labor, 40 ; relation of Capital to Destitution, 41 ; Capital in 
its bearing on natural right, 41 ; definitions of Capital considered, 42 ; instan- 
ces of illusory distinctions between Capital and Wealth, 42 ; Labor may be so 
misapplied as to produce no wealth, 42 ; illustrations of same, 42 ; saving 
habits more beneficial to the community than wasteful, 43 ; the assumed re- 
lation between Wages and Capital considered, 43 ; the case of California cited, 
43; circumstances under which an increase in Wealth is prejudicial, 43 ; the 
proposition tliat Capital must be consumed to render it productive, 43-44; 
the object of Industry, 44 ; incalculable value of the world's accumulated 
wealth, 44; our indebtedness to past ages, 44 ; our obligations to posterity, 
44 ; distinction between the want of Capital and of Money, 59 ; only needed 
by the American people to achieve great results, 68 ; = 77 = ; an exclusively 
Paper currency in connection with Capital, 78 ; cheaper in Western Europe 
than in the United States, 78 ; the dearness of Capital impedes the progress 
of our National Industry, 78 ; the Wages system foments hostility between 
Capital and Labor, 85 ; its relative scarcity and dearness in the United States, 
151 = 158 = 172. 

Capron (Hon. Horace) : 206. 

Carey (Henry C.) : 136 ; on the influence of near markets on farming, 140. 

Carsy (Matthew) : reference to the writings of, 34. 

Carlyle (Thomas) : on Work, 20 = 54 = 169 = 349. 

Carolina (North) : relative production, 19 ; little wealth produced in, save by 
men's labor, 19 = 134 = 244 = 252 = 272. 

C.iBOLiNA (South) : favors the Tariff of 1816, 118 = 116 = 134 = 252 = 272 = 323. 

Carpeting : Duties on, 292. 

Carrot; 187. 

Carthage : 26. 

Cassimeres : 343. 

Cattle : 235. 

Caulsdorff : 188. 

Cayenne : 209. 

Chamber op Commerce (New York : 293 = protest against the Tariff of 1824, 
222 ; against minimums, 293. 

Champagne : adulterations of, 155. 

Ghamplain : 151, 152. 

Channing (Rev. W. E.) : on the beneficence of Labor, 21. 

Charleston (S. C.) : 122 = British vessels at, display their flags at half mast, 253. 

Cheese: 234,338. 

Chicago : 244. 

China : allusion to, as tea-growing country, 30 ; the relative price of tea in, 31 ; 
condition of the population of, 44 ; her febrics once worn extensively in New 
England, 45 ; Chinese now importers of fabrics, 45 ; our dependence on, for 
raw silk, 48 = 49 = ; immigration from, 83, = 124 = 152 = 155 = 186 = 227 
= 231, 307, = 312, 313. 

Civilization : security of property essential to the maintenance of, 15 ; Greek 
and Roman, as affected by distaste for labor, 16 ; based on Capital and sys- 
tematic Labor, 40. 

Clay (Hon. Henry) : relation as a Protectionist to the Slavery Propaganda, 24 ; 
reference to the speeches of, 34 ; defeat of, in 1844, followed by repeal, 97 ; 
exposes the Free Trade fallacy about prices, 101 = 135 = 136 = 189 = 212 = 
220 ; on the contrasted influences of Free Trade and Protection (1832), 261 = 
351 = 353 = 354. 



ANALYTICAL LNDEX. 359' 

CuNTON (Governor George) : 34 = 118 = 351. 

Clinton (Governor DeVFitt) : 34 = 118 = 126 = 851. 

(Jlock-s: 343. 

Cloth : 139. 

Clothing and Dre.ss Goods : Duties upon, 291. 

Clothes-makino : referred to, a2 an illustration of how dependence on foreign 
markets operates, 338, 339. 

Clyde (the River) : 225 = 226 = 228 = 230. 

Coal : 95 = 172 = 173 = 236 = 244. 

Coast (Atlantic): 274. 

Coasting Trade: 231. 

Cobdex-Chevalier Treat? : the, 332. 

Coleman (Dr.) ; letter from General Jackson to, 34, 134. 

CoLisECJi : 42. 

Colles (Christopher) : 123 = 125. 

Colonies (French) : 195. 

COLUMBCS : 15 = 61 = 81 = 91 = 186. 

Commerce : the immense growth and development of modem, 26 ; canse to 
which it is due, 26; its greatness compared with ancient, 26; presages of its 
augmentation, 26 ; influence of the hopes of commercial gain, 27 ; Traffic 
preferred to Productive Industry, 27 ; deceptive character of commercial 
traffic, 27 ; inter-oceanic commerce the most attractive, 28 ; offers the greatest 
facilities for large gains, 28 ; illustrations thereof, 28 ; the chief end of a true 
Political Economy in relation to Commerce and Production, 29 ; advantage of 
reducing the number of nou-producers, 29 ; waste of human effort by unprof- 
itable exchanges, 29 ; no contravention of the laws of nature proposed, 29 ; 
Free Trade evasions of the true issue in regard to Commerce, 30; the true 
functions of international and trans-oceanic, 30; no duty proposed on pro- 
ducts where Nature is a barrier, 30 ; where the principle of Protection might 
be wisely applied, 30 ; enhanced cost of Tea to consumers from being a foreign 
product, 31 ; the remedy for the unnecessary expense incurred, 31 ; the ad- 
vantages of diverting labor from Commerce to Production. 31 ; the proposed 
distribution recommended solely for the public good, 32 ; the Free Trade er- 
roneous interpretation of this policy explained, .32 ; great economy which has 
resulted fi-om naturalizing products, 33; unfair action of Free-Traders in 
quoting prices at the seaboard, 33 : illustrations thereof, 33 ; assumptions by 
Free-Traders that we force the sale of inferior goods replied to, 34 ; their en- 
tire variance with history, 31 ; writings and speeches of eminent Americans 
referred to, 34; their advocacy of Protection .solely in the interests of Agri- 
culture, 34 ; Manufactures unknown or of very limited extent at the time, .34 ; 
the occupations of the people in these years, 34 ; the main considerations 
which governed the early champions of Protection, 34 ; General Jackson's 
letter to Dr Coleman, 34 ; perishable field products require a near market, 36 ; 
the effect of the cost of transportation on the price of Indian-corn, 36; the 
price of corn not governed by foreign tariffs, 37; the profits of farming in- 
creased by manufactures, 37; the Free Trade cavil about indiscriminate Pro- 
tection, 37; the practical considerations to betaken into account, 38; the 
mission of Commerce, 39 ; the New York Merchants memorialize Congress for 
protective measures to save our Commerce from ruin, 1817, 63 ; the Free Trade 
statements that a nation always Imports wisely considered, 131 ; that the best 
distribution of Labor is caused thereby, 131 ; practical operation of this prin- 
ciple. 131 : our foreign debt at the sacrifice of national interests, 132 ; a lavish 
increase of Imports leads to depression and calamity, 132 ; cooperation in relan 



360 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

tion to Commerce, 273; machinery of Distribution defective, 274 ; pernicious 
effects of Traffic on Industry, 274 ; illustration thereof, 274 ; Parke Godwin 
on Commerce, 275 ; its true mission and relations, 276 ; the chief end of a true 
Political Economy, 282 ; Commerce should be the servant, not the master, of 
Industry, 338 ; its place in a true Political Economy, 338. 

Commerce (Foreign): 220. 

Commons (British House of ): 327. 

Competition : home, reduces profits to an equation with those of general Indus- 
try, 32 ; circumstances in which it is neither just nor beneficent, 38 ; a fra- 
ternal feeling should take the place of, 344. 

Competitors (British) : 219. 

Conclusions (analysis of) : Labor less remunerated when materials are trans- 
ported long distances for fabrication, 336 ; our policy regarding diversified 
production, 337 ; the object of a true Political Economy, 337 ; Commerce 
should be the servant, not the master, of Industry, 338; the loss from ex- 
changes, 338 ; the Free Trade view of the matter considered, 339 ; conse- 
quences of dependence on foreign supplies, 340 ; Free Trade idea of cheapness 
delusive, 341 ; illustrations thereof, 341 ; Protection equivalent to Labor- 
Saving through Cooperation, 341 ; Protection stimulates valuable industries 
and serves all, 342 ; it enhances the value of Agricultural Staples and reduces 
the cost of Manufactures, 343 ; maintains remunerative wages for Labor, 343 ; 
continuance on that ground desirable, 343 ; evils of competition and commer- 
cial strife, 344 ; rights of the Laboring class, 345 ; Free Trade opposition to 
Trades Unions, 345; the necessity for Association, 345 ; Cooperation , as the 
next great progressive measure, 346 ; its ultimate success inevitable, 346 ; its 
immense advantages, 346; influence of its success, 347; losses entailed by 
lack of industrial training, 348 ; continued evil influence of idle habits, 348 ; 
industrial education secured by diversifying pursuits, 348 ; Protection to La- 
bor, under various forms essential, 349 ; folly of National industrial inde- 
pendence being controlled by cheapness, 349 ; inconsistency of the Free-Trad- 
ers' propositions respecting a Revenue Tariff, 350 ; Protection favored by our 
great men, in the interests of Agriculture, 350 ; their policy, 351 ; false appli- 
cation of the word Monopoly, 351 ; Protection in American History, 352 ; the 
West and New England in regard to Protective Tariffs 352 ; Iron, Lumber, 
Salt, 352 ; the great Immigration since Manufactures were established, 352 ; 
Population tends to abandon Agricultural regions, 353 ; existence of Manufac- 
tures indispensable to steady and extensive Immigration, 353 ; the triumphs 
of Protection in former epochs, 353 ; periods of prostration and disaster due to 
the Free Trade policy, 353 ; Mr. Clay on the interval between 1824-32, 354. 

Congress : the, of 1860 - 61 enacted a Protective Tariff, 25 = 63 = ; action of, 
on General Washington's First Message, 110 = 144 = 147 = 215 = 239 = 309 
= 329. 

Connecticut : 47 = 133 = 134 = 152 = 252 = 340 = 341. 

Constantinople : 23. 

Constitution: provision la the Federal, respecting private property, 53; Fede- 
ral, 234 = 247. 

Consumers : all Producers and Consumers in turn, 171 : have all identical inter- 
ests, 171 ; demonstration thereof, 171 ; its general applicability, 172 ; miscon- 
ception of interests, 172 ; see Iron and Sugar for further explanation and 
proof that Protection is a boon to the Consumer. 

Convention (the New York Constitutional) : 230. 

Cooperation : the whaling industry, 89 ; other cooperative enterprises, 89 ; 
their experimental character, 90 ; possibility of modification if they fail, 90 ; 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 361 

CTidences thereof, 90 ; the power of associated capital, 90 ; the prospects of 
Labor, 90 ; conditions for the success of the cooperative principle, 91 ; the 
Talue of one successful scheme, 91 ; the evil influence of Competition, 91 ; de- 
fect of the Wages system in regard to Cooperation, 91 ; Louis Blanc on Com- 
petition, 93 ; the correctness of his remarks vindicated in the United States, 
93 ; the vast progress of the present age in material production, 273 ; neces- 
sity for cooperation, 273, 274 ; machinery of distribution defective, 274; il- 
lustration thereof, 274 ; Parke Godwin on Commerce, 275 ; the object of Co- 
operation in Trade, 276 ; the losses to society from the unnecessary number 
engaged in exchanges, 277 ; Cooperation vindicated by experience, 278 ; the 
organization of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers, 278 ; their progress, 278 ; 
their system, 280 ; cash payment essential, 281 ; general effect of Coopera- 
tion, 281 ; the further development of Cooperation in trade, 282 ; the rela- 
tions between Cooperation and Protection, 283 ; organization of Labor on a 
Cooperative basis, 284; progress of Cooperation in France, 284; in Austria, 
284; schemes for industrial association in the United States, 285 ; the obsta- 
cles to its development here, 286 ; the advantages to be realized, 286 ; its aim, 
346 ; success inevitable, 346 ; the economy to be realized by it, 346. 

Cooper (Dr.) : predicting National Bankruptcy, 249. 

Copper : 231, 241. 

Corn Laws : the British, in relation to the market for American produce, 36. 

Corn (Indian) : 36; its relative value in near and distant markets, 37 ; effect of 
the cost of transportation on, 46 = 105 = 137 = 139 = 148 = 217 ; price in 
1825, 218. 

Corning (Erastus, & Co.): 103. 

Cost : the effect of Duties on, illustrated, 103 ; general propositions on the sub- 
ject, 104 ; home production the cheapest, 105 ; domestic competition sufficient 
to regulate cost, 105 ; cost of production the general measure of price, 106. 

Costa Rica : 26. 

Cossacks : 191. 

Cotton : Indian, sent to England and returned in the shape of fabrics, 45 = 105, 
235 = a31, price of, in 1825, 218 ; decrease in the production of, 224 = 235 = 
321, 331 = 338 = 338 = 339. 

Cox, S. S. : 305. 

Credit: general confidence felt in the progress of the country, 233; the ten- 
dency to run into debt, 233 ; indivilual credit used to excess in this country, 
234; extent of our foreign indebtedness at the outset of our Civil War, 234; 
continued increase, 234 ; its present extent, 235 ; the necessary excess of Ex- 
ports over Imports, 235; increase in our national wealth, 236; the present 
Paper currency, 238 ; its effect on Manufactures, 237 ; the National Debt, 238 ; 
the most prudent policy to pursue, 238; the Revenue Tariff question, 239 ; 
our financial policy, 240 ; payment of the National Debt, 240 ; Tariff legis- 
lation, 240 ; reduction of taxation on Whiskey, Tobacco, &c., 241 ; Develop- 
ment of Domestic Industry, 241 ; the present high prices, 242 ; indiscrimi- 
nate tendency to incur debt, 242 ; Repudiation worse than Secession, 243 ; 
importance of having the people remuneratively employed, 244 ; increase in 
our Manufactures, 244 ; Agriculture as affected by Manufactures, 245. 

Crosby (Dr.) : 153. 

Cuba: 337. 

CuLLOM (Hon. S. M.): 206. 

Currency (Paper): see Monet. 

Currency (irredeemable : its effect on prices, 236; injurions to Manuftctures, 
237 ; see Money. 

16 



362 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Cut-Nails : 47 = 343. 

CYCLOPiBDiA (Appleton's) : 223 = 308. 

Dacca (The District of ) : 164. 

Daguerre : 52- 

Dallas (Alexander J.) : Reports in favor of the Tariff of 1816, 117 : his Re- 
marks, 117. 

Darien (Isthmus of ); 26, 231. 

Debt (Foreign); probable amount of the American to Europe, 235; still in- 
creasing, 236. 

Debt (Public) : gold and silver might be wisely retained to pay off our, 32 ; the 
Public, should be the basis of an exclusively Paper Currency, 74 = 231 = ; 
the Public Debt no blessing, 238 ; the importance of funding it, 238 ; means of 
doing so, 238 ; our best policy in regard to the, 240 ; the baseness of Repudi- 
ation, 243 ; the War Debt of the country, 270. 

dombasle, m. : 190. 

Delaines : 154, 343. 

Delaware: 134,274. 

Delaware (the River) : 225. 

Delavan (Edward C): 103. 

Denmark : 312, 313. 

Detroit : 173. 

Deyeux(M.): 190. 

Dillon (John) : 328 = 329 = 334. 

Duties : Specific and Ad Valorem defined, 323 ; the nature of a minimum, 323 ; 
the introduction and operation of the minimum principle, 323 ; the cardinal 
objection to Ad Valorem duties, 324 ; iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the 
working of the Ad Valorem Tariff of 1846 (1849), 325 ; fluctuating prices of 
foreign iron, 325 ; their injurious effect on American industry, 326; specific 
duties strongly preferred in Europe, 327 ; the operation of specific rates in 
the Zoll-Verein Tariff, 327 ; evidence of Mr. John Dillon on levying duties 
by weight and Ad Valorem, 328 ; Hon. James Thompson's treatment of the 
Tariff question, 329 ; why the minimum principle is required, 331 ; British 
negotiations for the French Treaty of 1860, 332 ; the French reject the Ad 
Valorem principle, 332 ; the operation of specific duties, 333 ; a British view 
of the French tariff analyzed, 334 ; the most advisable course to pursue in fix- 
ing duties, 334 ; the importance of discouraging the importation of worthless 
and inferior goods, 335. 

Duties on Imports : total receipts from each year from 1820 to 1828, inclusive, 
223 = 236. 

Dureau(M. B.): 199. 

Earll (Jonas) : 252. 

East (The) : 286 = 311. 

Eastern States (The) : 138. 

Eaton (Hon. John H.) : 135 = ; votes for the Tariff of 1828, 253. 

Edinburgh Review : 192. 

Education (Popular): Public Lands devoted to, 53. 

Embargo : with War, a precarious shelter to our manufactures in 1812-14, ^. 

England : 28 ; reference to the value of Indian-corn in, 37 ; her fabrics thrown 
in immense quantities on our markets, 1812-14, 62, = 89 = ; her sacrifices to 
destroy American manufacturing Industry, 93; evidences thereof, 93 = 152 = 
164 = 168 = 175 = 19(5. = 208 = 226 = 280 = 260 = 303 = 314 = 349. 

Equitable Pioneers : = 89 = 280 = 281. 

Europe : penetrated by the Saracens, 16 ; serfdom destroyed in, by diversified 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 363 

industry, 16, 28, 34 ; its markets remote and unremunerative for Canadian 
manufactures, 38 ; prodigious progress of invention in, 45; her indebtedness 
to American invention, 47 ; beaten in some brandies of industry by American 
skill, 47 ; Hamilton's antagonists desired to have our workshops in, 46 ; ulti- 
mate effect of industrial dependence on, 46 = 48 = ; coinage of Europe, 57 ; 
relative cheapness of Capital in Western, 78 ; the elements of manufacture 
cheaper in, than here, 78 ; slavery, 82: iron-makers attracted hither, 99 = 
138 = 146 = 148 = 158 : peasantry of = 171 = 172 = 174 = 175 = 195 = 211 
219 = 226 = 231 = 234 = 2*5 = 236 = 241 = 242; Western, 287, 800, 303, 
306, 311, 318, 322. &38, 340, 343, 344. 

Exports : the nature of our, 234 = 235 = 236 ; annual aggregate from 1817 - 32, 
259. 

Exposition (Paris) : 209 = 297 = 299. 

F.\BRics : 29, 134, 136, 138, 147, 152, 153, 154, 157, 172,234, 245 = 249, 288, 322,343. 

F.\BRics (Cotton); the Tariff of 1842 and cotton fabrics, 102, = 106; the com- 
mittee on Commeree and Manufactures report in fiivor of an increase of the 
duties on, 1816, 115 ; rates on, in the Tariff of 1816, 117 = 323 = 324. 

Flax : 336. 

Flour : 236. 

FoRW.vRD (Walter) : 34, 136 = 

France : 48, 111 ; the Milan, 112 = 114 = 150 = 151 = 152 = 175 = 189 = 190 
192 = 193 = 194 = 195 = 196 = 199 = 200 = 204 = 206 = 207 = 208 = 209 
= 210 = 233 = 242 = 284 = 288 = 298 = 311 = 313 = 314 = 320 = 334 = 342. 

Franklin (Benjamin): 90; on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home 
Manufactures, 139. 

Frederick the Gre.\t : 188. 

Free Tr.\de : regarded by the South as in harmony with Slavery, 24 ; evasions 
of the true issue made by advocates of Free Trade, 30 ; the Free Trade fallacy 
that it affords the farmer the choice of two markets, .36 ; the Free Trade doc- 
trine limiting taxation to " maintain law and order," 120 ; wise deviation 
from it in regard to Chicago and New York, 121 ; beneficial result, 121 ; the 
City of New York as evidence, 121 ; the present arguments of Free-Traders 
employed against the Canal policy of New York, 128 ; Adam Smith's state- 
ment that the employment each one prospers in is the best for the commu- 
nity, 128; fallacious and mistaken, 129; demonstration thereof, 129; Free 
Trade doctrine as set forth in the petition of the London Merchants, 129 ; 
its essential propo.Mtions quoted, 130 ; its first a-ssumption involving the 
dictum of Adam Smith, 130 ; the error therein, 131 ; the statement that a 
country always imports wisely, 131 ; that the best distribution of Labor and 
Capital is thus caused, 131 ; practical operation of this principle, 131 ; our 
accumulated foreign Debt at the sacrifice of national interests, 132 ; a lavish 
increase of imports leads to depression and calamity, 132 ; had always a 
strong party in Congress, 133, = 139 = 271 = 278 = 317 ; the Free Trade 
appeal to the Working Classes, 161 ; quotation from McCulloch to the effect 
thereof, 162 ; the radical vice in their view, 162 ; testimony of Dr. Bowring, 
in refutation of Mr. McCulloch's theory, 163 ; effects of competition in In- 
dia, 163 ; Free Trade sets the Laboring Class of different countries bidding 
against and underworking each other, 169 : theory and policy of Free-Trad- 
ers not in accord with the Golden Rule, 170 = 332 ; the Free Trade idea of 
cheapness delusive, 340. 

Free-trader (newspaper) : The, 209. 

Free-traders : 240, 251 ; inconsistent in favoring a Revenue Tariff, 349 ; illus- 
trations of the unsoundness of their po.-itiuu, 349. 



364 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

French(B. F.): 325. 

Fruits : 243 = 244 = 252 = 274. 

Fuel: 252. 

Fulton (Robert) : 125 = 126. 

Galileo; 278. 

Gasparin (M. de) : 207. 

Genesee (County) : 137. 

Georgia: 134 = 168 = 252 = 272. 

Germany : 189 = 192 = 204 = 205 = 207 = 288 = 311 = 313 = 314 = 320 = 353. 

Ginghams : 343. 

GiRARD (Stephen) : 20. 

Glass : 343. 

GoDiNOFF (Boris): 81. 

Godwin (Mr. Parke) : on Commerce, 275. 

Gold : regarded as Money at an early period, 56 ; its qualities, 56 ; originally 
valued and transferred by weight, 56 ; supply of, increased in Europe by the 
discovery of America, 61 ; the Free Trade assumption that a country may part 
with half its specie without serious harm, 61 ; drainage of specie in conse- 
quence of the excessive importations, 1815-24, 64; effects thereof, 64; an ex- 
clusively specie currency in California, 69, 241, 310, 321. 

Grain : 138 = 149 = 234 = 236 = 243 = 260. 

Grant (E.B.): 197. 

Grape: 241. 

Great Britain : productive capacity of her machinery, 45 ; competes with the 
Labor of Eastern Asia, 45 = 62 = ; extends her trade over the globe, 62, = 72 
= 93 = ; British monarchs grant monopolies, 95 ; her arbitrary Orders in 
Council, HI ; War with, 113 ; the close of, 114 = 126 = 137 = 151 = 152 = 
163 = 173 = 225 = 230 = 236 = 238 = 242 = 259 = 280 = 288 = 294 = 298 
= 301 = 311 = 313 = 314 = 320 = 336 = 353. 

Greencastle : 173 = 244. 

Greenland : 192. 

Greeley (Horace) : 330. 

Groceries; 234. 

Guadaloupe : 209. 

Guardian (Manchester), The : 303. 

HAMttTON (Hon. Alexander) : reference to his Report on Manufactures, 34 = 46 i 
as one of the Fathers, 109; his Report on Manufactures, 1791, 109; extract 
therefrom, on the national economy of establishing home manufaxstures, 305. 

Hanover : 316. 

Hardware : 139. 

Harlan and Hollingswosth Co. ; 230. 

Haroun al Raschid : empire of allusion, 16. 

Harrison (Governor) ; 124. 

Havana : 231, 236. 

Hay : 200. 

Hayti : 237. 

Hemp : 231, 336. 

Herald (Tbe New Haven) : prophecies of, 253. 

Hewitt (Abram S.) : 174. 

H0BBiE(S. R.): 252. 

Hoffman (Michael) : 252. 

Holland : 233 = 311 = 313 = 320. 

Homer: 274. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 365 

flooD (Admiral) : 188. 

Hops: 106. 

HowE(i!.lias): 50,319. 

HuDso.N (The River) : 225. 

Hungary : 314. 

Uu.ME (Joseph) : 93 = 327. 

HusKissoN : 130. 

Idaho : 322. 

Illinois : 37 = 134 = 137 = 152 = 152 = 174 = 244. 

Immigratio-N : Population the main element of national strength, 306 ; the pros- 
pect of gain the main incentive to Immigration, 306 ; Immigration inconsider- 
able while the-country was mainly agricultural, 307 ; Redemption system, its 
objectionable and redeeming features, 307 ; density of Population not an in- 
variable cause of Immigration, 308 ; population tends to abandon Agricultural 
regions, 308; selects those more densely peopled where labor is diversified, 
308 ; the number of Immigrants in the Free Trade and exclusively Agricul- 
tural period small, 309; the Immigration prior to 1794, 308 ; its extent from 
17915 to ISlU, 309 ; number of passengers who arrived at the ports of the United 
States from 1820 to 1856, 3(i9 ; the immense immigration a direct consequence 
of the establishment and growth of our home manufactures, 310 ; contrast 
of the Immigration during the Agricultural and Manufacturing era, 310 ; 
causes influencing Population in New England, 311 ; the immigration by 
countries, 1820-60, 311, 312; the immigration of 1856-68, 312; the immi- 
gration by countries, 313 ; Frederick Kapp on the influence of political and 
commercial convulsions on European migration, 313 ; the property brought 
by immigrants, 313; importance of the quality of Immigration, 314; im- 
provement in the industrial character of our Immigrants, 317; favorable in- 
fluence of the existence of Manufoctures on Immigration, 319 ; losses entailed 
on France by the persecuting policy of Louis XIV. , 320 ; Free Trade advocates 
on the relative condition of the Laboring Cl.ass in England and in the United 
States, 320 ; disproved by the fact of Immigration, 320; Immigration in the 
future, 321 : the increasing inducements offered to Immigrants, 321 j the 
illimitable demand for Labor, 322. 

Immigration (Mongolian) : 83. 

Implements : 134. 

Imports : the relation our Imports .should bear to our Exports, 235 = 251 ; the 
Imports. 1817-32, 259 ; imports from England and Scotland, 1821 -33, 260. 

India : allusion to, as a tea-groiving country, 30 : her traffic with England, 45 ; 
her true industrial policy, 45 = 61 = ; emigration from, 83 = 163. 

Indiana: 1.34; relative production, 19 ; little wealth produced in, save by men's 
labor, 19 = 173 = 244 = 252. 

IsDusTKY : beneficent influence of, 15; the influence of indu.«trious habits, 15; 
criminals and reprobates produced by idleness, 15 ; diversified, undermined, 
and destro)-ed serfdom in Europe, 16; industrial training should be made 
general, 17 ; lack of it the greatest cause of calamity and loss, 17 ; advantages 
of such training, 17 ; national loss from involuntary idleness, 18 ; diversified 
industry essential to the employment of a whole communltj', 18 ; a people 
who have but a single source of profit uniformly poor, 19 ; its inability to 
employ and reward various capacities, 19 ; importance of a divpr^t*'- of pur- 
suit<:, 19 ; illustrations, the once District of Maine, 19 : some districts of the 
Russian Empire, 19 ; the relative production of M■^ss,achusetts, North Caro- 
lina, and Indiana, 19 ; the disparity removable by introducing Manufactures, 
19 ; the almost exclusive employment of men's labor in South Carolina and 



306 ANA1.YTI0AL INDEX. 

Indiana, 19 ; the impulse to labor, 19 ; our indebtedness to the labor of past 
generations, 20 ; beneficent influence of industry on the moral character, 20 ; 
Nature inflexible and undeviating in her demands, 20 ; Carlyle on Work, 20 1 
Work an evidence of the value and necessity of integrity and truth, 20 ; Rev. 
W. E. Channing on the beneficence of labor, 21 ; observation of Ross Browne 
in the Holy Land, 22 ; absence of industry in Palestine explained, 23 ; few 
manufactures there, 23 ; the people impoverished, 23 ; effects of Turkish fiscal 
system on home industry, 23 ; the lazzaroni of Naples, 23 ; the controlling 
influences at the South, 25 ; the development and employment of the peeple's 
industrial capacity, 25 ; fatal effects of undiversified industry, 25 , Traflic pre- 
ferred to Productive Industry, 27 ; home competition equalizes the profits of 
general National Industry, 32 ; its need of defence, 38 ; Capital the uncon- 
sumed and un wasted remainder of, 40 ; the proposition that Industry is Um- 
ited by Capital considered, 43 ; the object of Industry, 44 ; influence of the 
progress of American, 49 ; whatever induces and incites systematic industry 
a public good, 54 ; Money in connection with industry, 54 ; the incentive it 
affords, 56 ; productive industry as a means of advancement referred to, 68 
= 77 = ; the dearness of Capital impedes our National, 78 ; importance of har- 
monizing the interests of the employer and employed, 86 ; the whaling indus- 
try on a cooperative basis, 89 ; prostration of our manufacturing industry by 
competition, 93 ; collapse of our industry in 1840 - 42, 93 ; our National, 235 ; 
Manufacturing and Mechanical, 243 = 260 = ; Cooperation in, 273 ; suffers 
from Traffic, 274; the calamity entailed by idleness, 348 ; extent of its evil 
influences, 348 ; the need of industrial education for all, 348 ; secured by di- 
versity of pursuits, 348. 
Intellectual Propertt : its rights, 49 ; compared with those of material, 49 ; 
illustration of same, 49 ; Thiers on the Right of Property, 50 ; the sphere of 
the poet compared with that of the inventor, 50 ; restrictions upon the in- 
ventor's right of Property, 50 ; the rights of author and publisher distmct, 
51 • International Copyright and patriotism, 51 ; effects of the absence of In 
ter'national Copyrio-ht, 51 ; Walter Scott a sufferer for want of International 
Copvrieht 52 ; abolition of the Patent system in conflict with the rights of 
Property 52 ■ objections answered respecting the perpetuity of Patents and 
Copyright 52; proposed arrangement between the government and foreign 
authors, 53 ; its accordance with the Federal Constitution, 53. 
Interest: the ruling rate of, in California, 69; conditions on which usury 
laws might be modified, 70 ; the argument that mterest ,s unjust considered 
70; the benefit of recognizing the rightfulness of interest, , 1; the nature of 
interest explained, 79 ; effect of creating an artificial rate of 80; the annual 
interest on our indebtedness to Europe, 235 ; on our National Debt, 238 ; how 
to reduce the rate, 238. 
Iowa. : 37. 

Iowa City : 36 = 37 = 187. 

IRELVND : 140 = 311 = 313 = 815 = 352. . . 

Iron : unftiir comparisons in the price of, 33 ; produced iargely in the interior, 
33; an instance of cost enhanced by transportation, 33 ; improvements in 
the production of, 48 ; misapplication of the word "monopoly" to the manu- 
facture thereof 96 ; views of a Missouri representative on the tariff rate on 
Iron, 98, 99 ; the facilities for Its production, 99; inconsistency between the 
teachings and practice of Free-Traders in regard to Iron, 100 ; competition 
therein, stimulated by profit, 106 = 139 = 147; real cost of American Iron 
less to American consumers than that of foreign, 150; the Sterling Iron 
mines, 151; Copake Iron mines, 152; propositions to import Iron con- 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. :^67 

sidered, 172; evidence of progress in Iron production, 173; price of Foreign 
Iron enhanced under the Revenue Tariff of 1846,174; Labor the principal 
item in the cost of the production of Iron, 174 ; the relative cost of production 
of Bar Iron here and abroad, 175 ; Hon. D. J. Morrell on tiie future of our 
Iron industry, 175 ; extract from the report of Abram S. Hewitt showing the 
share Labor has in the production of Iron and its influence on the cost of 
production, 177 ; the same Report on the condition of the working classes in 
England, 178 ; reasons why we should prefer buying our own manufactured 
products instead of European, 179 ; Free Trade statements respecting alleged 
claims for greater Protection, 179 ; the Protective Tariff rates on Iron from 
1824-61, 180; Free Trade misrepresentations about the duty on Pig Iron, 
180 ; production of Pig Iron in the United States, 1863-68, 181 ; do. in Great 
Britain, 1863-66, 181; do. in France, 181; do. in Austria, 181, our Iron 
Imports in 1868, 182 ; evasions of the Tariff made evident, 183; the price of 
Iron measured by the cost of production, 184 ; effects of instability in the 
Tariff, 185 ; Iron in connection with Ship-building, 216 ; great facilities for 
Iron Production, 217 ; our wisest policy in regard to Iron, 218; the Protec- 
tion extended to Iron unsteady, 218; Iron cheapened by Protection, 218; 
price of Pig Iron, Corn, Wheat, and Cotton, 1825, 218; Free Trade misrepre- 
sentations in regard to Iron explained, 219 ; the mistake of expecting foreign 
Iron at a fixed price, 219 ; Sir Morton Peto on American Ship-building, 224 ; 
Iron Ship-building on the Delaware, 230 ; the deceptive representations as re- 
specting the Tariff rates on Iron, 237; advantages of increasing its produc- 
tion, 241 ; rapid development of our manufacturing Industry, 244 ; Iron re- 
ferred to in connection with the pernicious working of Ad Valorem Duties, 
324 ; the Iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the operation of the Tariff, 1846, 
325; the fluctuating prices of foreign Iron, 325; the injurious effects, 326; 
Protection and the prices of Iron, 327 ; Hon. James Thompson and the duty 
on Iron, 329 = 341 = 343 = 349 = 352. 

Isle op Dogs : 227. 

Israelites : 47. 

Italy : 288 = 312 = 313 = 314. 

Jackson (General) : letter to Dr. Coleman, 34 = 134 = 135 = 212 = 252 = 351. 

Jap vx : allusion to, as a tea-growing country, 30 = 31 = 186 = 231. 

Jefferson (President): as one of the fatherr, 109; a farmer, 110; on the le- 
gitimate objects of the Federal Government, 111 ; on the maintenance of 
Protection, 111 ; on the progress and Protection of Manufactures, 112 = 120 
= 351. 

Johnson (Col. Richard M.) : votes fbr Tariff of 1828, 253. 

JoHxsoN (Dr. Samuel) : 187. 

Kansas : 55 ; proposed Industrial Association in, 90. 

Kellogg (Edward) : his plan for an exclusively Paper Currency, 75; his view 
of the Monopoly of Money, 75 ; proposal for its remedy, 75 ; his proposed 
Safety Fund Note, 76 = 79. 

Kennedy (Joseph C. G.) : 287 = 290. 

Kentucky : intolerable pressure of Debt in, following the war of 1812 - 14, 63 
= 134 = 252. 

Ko:tAN : The, 23. 

Labor: defined, 13; human existence dependent on labor, 13 ; idle and im- 
provident tribes and classes disappear, 13; produces first food and fabrics, 
13 ; continues to minister to human desires, 14 ; man's insatiable desire for 
wealth, 14 ; love of personal acquisition the mainspring to the achievement 
of most material good, 15 ■, Columbus as an illustration, 15 ; personal ad- 



368 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Tancement as an incentive to continuous exertion, 15 ; Man's natui'al love 
of ease and enjoyment only overborne by incentives to labor, 15 ; security of 
property essential to the maintenance of civilization, 15 ; industry beneficent 
in its habitual influences and results, 15 ; reprobates and criininals the re- 
sult of youthful idleness, 15 ; industrious habits in youth a guaranty of a 
moral and useful life, 15 ; the fiite of the idle, 15 ; numbers unable to do 
anything useful, 16; a burden upon the community, 16 ; results from want 
of industrial training, 16 ; their willingness to work of no account, 16 ; in- 
dustrial training obligatory with some communities and races, 16 , no ex- 
emption on accoutit of condition or prospects, 16 ; the Saracens and Moors 
honored industry, 16 ; different course of the Turks and Arabs, 16 ; Greek 
and Roman civilization, as affected by the avoidance of labor, 16 ; diversifica- 
tion of industry destroyed and undermined serfdom in Europe, 16 ; that con- 
tinent emancipated through it from ignorance and barbarism, 17 ; pauperism 
and its attendant evils can only be banished by industrial training, 17 ; ought 
to be made general, 17 ; even as a resource, 17 ; idleness and inefficiency in- 
flict the greatest calamities, 17 ; the cause of this idleness and inefliciency, 

17 ; one tenth of our people habitually idle, 18 ; the cause, 18 ; national loss 
from involuntary idleness, 18 ; no dearth of employment for skilled workmen, 

18 ; the invariable influence of early laborious habits, 18 ; diversified industry 
essential to the employment of a whole community, 18 ; a people who have 
but a single source of profit uniformly poor, 19 ; its inability to employ and 
reward various capacities, 19 ; importance of a diversity of pursuits, 19 ; the 
once District of Maine illustrating the same, 19 : some districts of the Russian 
Empire, 19 ; the relative productiveness of Massachusetts, North Carolina, 
and Indiana, 19 ; the almost exclusive employment of men's labor in the 
latter States, 19 ; our indebtedness to the labor of past generations, 20 ; the 
Tforker has rarely time or taste for crime or vice, 20 ; Nature profoundly im- 
bued with integrity, 20 ; inflexible and undeviating in her demands, 20 ; 
beneficial influence of labor on the moral character, 20 ; Work an evidence of 
the value and necessity of integrity and truth, 20 ; Thomas Oarlyle on Work, 
20 ; Kev. W. B. Channing on the beneficence of labor, 21 ; observation of 
Ross Browne in the Holy Land, 22 ; idleness in Palestine accounted for, 23 ; 
labor amazingly cheap there, 23 ; few manufactures there, 23 ; the people 
impoverished, 23; pernicious effect of the inequalities in Turkish taxation, 
23 ; the lazzaroni of Naples, 23 ; the course an enlightened policy would dic- 
tate, 23 ; the extended influence of ample and remunerative employment, 24 ; 
the South of 1815-60, without intelligent labor, 25 ; it and Slavery could not 
exist together, 25 ; a Protective Tariff enacted in 1861 when the Slaveholders 
left Congress, 25 ; cheapness not an all-important consideration in a national 
policy, 25 ; the development and employment of the industrial capacity of the 
people paramount, 25 ; fatal effects of undiversifled, 25 ; Man the noblest 
fruition of Labor, 25 ; no useless application of Labor in contravention of nat- 
ural laws proposed, 29 ; waste of labor in connection with tea, 31 ; the re- 
ward of labor increased by wise distribution, 31 ; civilization based on sys- 
tematic labor, 40 ; the just relation between Capital and Labor, 48 ; cheap- 
ness of, in Eastern Asia, 45 ; unable to compete with British products, 45 ; 
what the interests of labor demand in India, 46 ; the foundation of the right 
of Property, 50 ; Rights of Labor, reference to, 51 ; unemployed labor lost 
forever, 56 ; the wages of labor depressed by the influx of British goods at the 
close of the war of 1812 - 14, 62 = 78 ; Labor in eager demand in new settlements, 
81 = 91 = 134 == ; Dr. Lieber's remarks on Labor considered, 135, 136 = 
138 =c ; the two classes which Manufactures divide into and the coanectioa 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 369 

•f Labor therewith, 146 ; where cheap Labor is most effective in competition, 
147 ; relative clearness of Labor, 150 ; the interests of pur artisans and artifi- 
cers, 158 : conflict between Labor and Capital disapproved, 159 ; universal 
industrial training approved, 160 ; Free Trade representations to the Labor- 
ing class, 160 ; J. R. McCuUoch quoted, 102 ; the Free Trade error in regard 
to Labor, 163 ; its fallacy demonstrated, 163 ; Dr. Bowring's testimony, 163 ; 
the decline of East Indian Industry, 164 ; the variable value of Labor, 165; 
the laborer in the contemplation of far-seeing statesmanship, 166 ; the perils 
attending cheap Labor, 166 ; Manufactures increase the recompense of Agricul- 
tural labor, 167 ; illustrations thereof, 167, 168 ; the general movement for in- 
creased wages, 168 ; how retarded by the Free Trade policy , 168 ; the true rela- 
tion of the laboring class of one country to that of another, 170 = 172 = 173 
= 174 = 175 = 199 = ; Labor and the Beet Sugar Industry of France, 202 ; 
Labor dearer in American than in foreign Shipyards, 225, = 236 = ; Wages 
of Labor at Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 301 ; compared with that paid in 
England, 301 ; statistics of the savings of the workpeople at Pacific Mills, 
Lawrence, Mass , 302 ; beneficial effect of Protection to the Woollen Indus- 
try, on Labor ,'302 ; skilled labor attracted here by a Protective policy, 317 ; 
Free Trade allegation resi)ecting the recompense of Labor in the United States 
and Europe, 320 ; the illimitable demand for Labor, 322 ; less remunerated 
where products are sent long distances for fabrication, 336 ; suffers where 
Commerce controls Industry, 338 ; influence of the cost of Labor on some 
Manufactures, 343 ; the protection of these National Industries justifiable and 
beneficeut, 344 ; Free Trade antagonism to Trades Unions, 345 ; the govern- 
ment should be vigilant for its Protection, 349 ; the false policy of regulating 
our Industry bj^ the price of foreign products, 349. See also Cooperation, 
L.VBORiNG Cl.\ss, Slavery, axb Wages. 

Laboring Class : want of accuracy in the term, 159 ; universal industrial train- 
ing approved, 159; labor more honorable than idleness, 160; the Laboring 
Class as popularly known, 160 ; its advance to political importance, 161 ; Free 
Trade representations to the Laboring Classes, 161 : J. R. McCuUoch quoted in 
connection therewith, 162 ; the Free Trade error, 162 ; its fallacy demonstrated, 
163; Dr. Bowring's testimony, 163; the decline of East Indian industry, 163, 
164 ; the variable value of Labor, 165 ; the laborer in the contemplation offer- 
seeing statesmanship, 166 : evil of cheap Labor, 167 ; Manufactures increase 
the recompense of Agricultural Labor, 167 ; illustrations of same, 168 ; the 
general movement for increased wages, 168 ; how retarded by the Free Trade 
policy, 169 ; Carlyle on the peril of depending on the product of cheap Labor, 
169 : our duty to rising industries in other lands, 170 ; the true relation of the 
laboring class of one country to that of another, 170 ; see also Labor. 

Lancashire : 308. 

Land: one sixteenth of the public lands devoted to Popular Education, 53; 
cheapness of land in the United States, 78. 

Lard: 234. 

Lawrence (Mass.) : 138 = 167 = 300. 

Legal Tender (The, act) : 72. 

Leipsic: 191. 

Levi (Professor): on Earnings of Labor, 301. 

Liberia : 344. 

LiEBiG : 319. 

LiEBER (Dr. Francis) : 135. 

Lille, 200. 

LiMiiSTONK : 95 = 173. 

16* X 



370 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Lincoln (President) : 57. 

Liverpool : 229, 325. 

Lloyd (Hou. James) : 96. 

Loans (Govermnent): 72. 

London : = 26 = ; flie Petition of the Merchants and Traders of, 131 = 139 = 
152 = 227 ='300 = 308. 

Londonderry (>f. H.,>: 138. 

Louis XIV. : 319. 

LonisiANA : 120 = 134 = 252 = 272. 

Lowell Mass.) : price- of the cotton fabrics of, in 1842, 103 = 138 == 167. 

Lowndes (William, ol South Carolina) : his share in the Tariff of 1816, and 
character, 116 = 217 & 323._ 

Lumber : 106 = 352. 

Lyon.s : 284 

Machinery : 322. 

Madison President) : a ^ one of the Fathers, 112 ; advocates the Protection and 
encouragement of na\ ive Manufactures, 112 = 113 = 114 = 361. 

Magse (John) : 252 

Maine : 19 ^ 30 = l&S -^ 134 = 225 = 252 = 286. 

Mallary iRollin C.) : 31 = 135. 

Manchester ^England) : B31 = 334. 

Manchester (N. H.) : JtS'H = 167. 

Manufactdres : referiui.e to Hamilton's Report on, 34; the establishment of 
home, advocated by ioaiinent Americans for the benefit of farmers, 34 ; un- 
known or very limited in the early years of the Eepublic, 34 ; British, in com- 
petition with thcfp of China and India, 45; manufactures foster invention, 
48 ; prostrated by Che influx of British goods soon after the war of 1812-14, 
62 ; the New YoiV> merchants ask Congress for protective measures to save our 
manufactures from ruin, 63; the progress of American, impeded by the dear- 
ness of Capital, 78 ; nearly every element of manufactures dearer here than in 
Europe, 78; British, 78; French, 78; German, 78; Belgian, 78; the great 
men of the early years of the Republic favorable to Home Manufactures, 108 ; 
favored Protection for them in the interests of Agriculture, 108 ; Washington 
advises the pvomotion of Manufactures, 109 ; action of Congress thereon, 109 ; 
Alexander Hamilton's R' port on Manufactures, 109 ; a standing Committee on 
Commerce and Manufactures created, 110 ; Washington affirms his former 
views, 110 ; Jefferson on the objects of the Federal Government, 111 ; on the 
maintenance of Protection, 112 ; Madison advocates the Protection and en- 
couragement of Manufacture?:, 112,113, 114; Dallas on the interest of Agricul- 
ture in Manufacture, 115 ; Newton of Virginia on the harmony of interests, 
116 ; on the general benefits arising from Manufactures, 116 ; Mr. Lowndes 
reports the Tariff of 1816, 116; Calhoun on the mutual interests of Manufac- 
tures and Agriculture, 117 ; advantages of the measure he sustained, 118 ; 
refurence to the messages of Governors George Clinton, Tompkins, DeWitt 
Clinton, and Snyder as corroborative of the great value of Manufactures to 
Agriculture, 118 ; reasons which guided the great men of the Republic, 119 ; 
Home Manufactures encouraged by the founders of the Republic in the inter- 
ests of Agriculture, 133 ; the Free Trade assumption respecting the cost of 
Home Manufactures, 139; Franklin on the inter-dependence of Agriculture 
and Home Manufactures, 139 ; downward tendency of the prices of domestic 
manufactures, 138 ; Adam Smith on the great value of Manufactures to 
Agriculture, 141 ; Alderman Mecbi thereon, 142 ; Dr. Lyman Beecher on 
the importance of Manufactures, 143 ; President Monroe urges Congress to 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 371 

aCocd Protection to Manufactures, 144 ; the distinct classes Manufactures di- 
vide into, iu regard to Political Economy, 14(5: explanation tliereof, 14d; in- 
fluence of cheap Labor on, 146 ; Kncounigement and Protection of Jiauufac- 
tures contemplated in the first Tariff, 14 1" ; tae special claim of ManulUctures 
to Protection, 148 ; in the interests of Agriculture, 149 ; why Manufactures 
need Protection, 150; relative dearness of Labor, 150; the scarcity and dear- 
ness of Capital, 154 ; abundance of skilled Labor in France and Great Britain, 
151; R.iilroads as aids to Manufacture, 151; the control exercised by the 
older manufacturing nations, 162; the partiality for foreign manufactures, 
153 ; the ascendency of foreign interests, 153 ; want of information on Ameri- 
can manufactures, 154 ; progress of the Watch manufacture, 154 ; imitation 
of foreign goods, 155 ; instances thereof, 156 ; impediments to the growth of 
American Manufacturing Industry and the nature thereof, 157 ; necessity for 
Protection, 158 ; our inflated currency and Home Manufactures, 237 ; Manu- 
factures stimulating Agriculture, 245 = 276 = the growth and progress of Im- 
migration a direct consequence of the establisliment of Home Manufactures, 
310 ; existence of Manufactures attracts a high order of industrial ability, 319 ; 
the loss France suffered from the expulsion of her manufacturers, 320 ; our true 
policy regarding diversified production, 337; consequences of dependence on 
foreign supplies, 340 ; the Free Trade idea of cheapness delusive, 341 ; demon- 
stration thereof, 341 ; Protection stimulates valuable industries and serves all, 
342 ; reduces tlie cost of Manufactures, 343 ; industrial education secured by 
diversifying pursuits, 348 ; folly of national industrial independence being 
controlled by cheapness, 349 ; Iron, Lumber, and Salt, 352 ; the great Immi- 
gration since Manufactures were established, 352; existence of manufacture* 
indispensable to steady and extensive Immigration, 353. 

Marct (Hon. William L.; : 351. 

Marekgo : 191. 

M.i.RGR.\Fr: 187,188. 

Mason-s: 284. 

Massachusetts . relative production with North Carolina and Indiana, 19 ; 
nearly half of the women and half of the children employed in, 19 ; spades 
and shovels of, unsurpassed in Europe, 47 ; hostile to Protection in 1822, 96, 
= 133 = 134 = 167 = 252 = 

Martinique : 209. 

Maryland : 124 = 134 = 274. 

McCuLLOCH Secretary Hugh : 239. 

McCuLLOCH (J. R. : 162. 

Mechi Alderman : on the value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 142. 

Meat: 138 =200 = 234. 

MEDrrERRANEAN : 186. 

Merrimack the Riverl : 167. 

Mersey (the Riverl : 225 = 226. 

Mztals : 1.34 = 136 = 172 = 245 = 283. 

Mexico : 311 = 319. 

Michigan : 137 = 173. 

Middle States : declared for Protection 1824, 133 = 1.34 = 245. 

Mifflin (Governor Thos.) : 125. 

Mill (John Stuart) ; proposition respecting Capital, 43, 60. 

Millw.vll: 227. 

Minerals : 172. 

Minnesota : 30 = 137. 

Missouri : = 97 = 134 = 152 = 244 = 286 



372 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Mississippi: the VaUey of, 83 ; the State of, 134 ; the River, 174. 

Mohammed • faith of, allusion, 16. 

Molasses ; 201 = 204. 

MoNEi : the diffusion and practice of systematic industry promotes the public 
good, 54 ; Money an agency in overcoming Man's natural indolence, 54 ; 
work universally preferred to starvation, 54 ; case of voluntary idleness, 55 ; 
influence of Money on industry, 56 ; beneficial effects of the creation and use 
of money, 58 ; Gold and Silver originally selected for money , 56 ; coins of his- 
toric worth, 57 ; failure of American in that respect, 57 ; Paper Money a sig- 
nal improvement on an exclusively coin currency, 57 ; its advantages and 
Convenience, 57 ; the reasons for such selection, 5G ; the use of Paper Money 
will increase indefinitely, 58 ; its advantages outweigh its abuses, 58 : a new 
country feels the dearth and realizes the want of Money, 58 : its tendency to 
send away its money, 59 ; effects which follow, 59 ; practical evidence of same, 
59 ; distinction between the want of Capital and of Money, 59 ; cause of the 
popularity of well-managed banks and their issues, 60 ; evils of Balance, of 
Trade whereby money is withdrawn and its return prevented, 60 ; the popu- 
lar feeling right on this matter, 60; the error of extravagant trading, 60; the 
nation doing so incurs the penalty of culpable folly, 60 ; the Free Trade treat- 
ment of this subject, 60 ; Bastiat quoted, 60 ; Mill quoted, 60 ; effects of scar- 
city of Money in the Roman empire, 61 ; beneficial effects on Europe of the 
gold from America, 61 ; the assumption by Free Trade economists that a 
country may part with half its specie without serious harm, 61 ; the injury 
caused by general recourse to barter, 61 ; personal recollections of the pecu- 
niary ruin at the close of the last war with England, 62 ; the tariff of 1816 
inadequate to avert it, 62 ; Manufactures, Agriculture, and Wages depressed, 
62 ; bankruptcy in New England, 63 ; intolerable pressure of Debt in Ken- 
tucky, and its effects, 63; New York merchants memorialize Congress, 63; 
barter general in Vermont in 1821-31, 64 ; personal recollections thereof, 64 ; 
the scarcity of money less after the passage of the Tariff of 1824, 64 ; effects of 
the drainage of specie by the excessive importations of 1815-24, 64 ; the con- 
sequences of scarcity of money summarized, 65 ; considerations which should 
govern imports and exports, 67 ; the reckless tendency to borrow, 68 ; Paper 
Money natural to an industrial people , 69 ; preference for gold and silver in 
California considered, 69 ; rash speculation not checked by hard money or 
legalized usury, 69 ; Paper Money more a benefit than otherwise, 72 ; an ex- 
clusively paper currency of questionable value, 72 ; the action of the Govern- 
ment respecting the currency at different periods, 72 ; its course during the 
Civil War, 72 ; wisdom.of the measure originally designed, 73 ; consequences 
of deviation from it, 74 ; conditions of an exclusively Paper Currency, 74 ; 
Edward Kellogg's plan for a paper currency, 75; his view of the Monopoly 
of Money, 75 ; proposal for its remedy, 75 ; his fundamental proposition, 76 ; 
money in existence before government intervention, 76 ; the controlling in- 
fluences on the currency proposed by E. Kellogg, 77 ; its connection with 
our foreign trade, 77 ; its inevitable effect, 78 ; the merits of Paper Currency, 
78 ; the enthusiasm in its favor, 78 ; the science of money imperfectly known, 
78; the dearness of Capital impedes the progress of our National Industry, 
78; distinction between real and fictitious estimates of wealth, 78: a happy 
medium between the ideas of extremists on a Paper and Coin currency, 80 ; 
effect of an irredeemable currency on Prices, 238 ; our inflated currency inju- 
rious to Manufactures, 237. 

Monopoly : a perverted and misapplied word, 95 : the right of granting monop- 
olies exercised by British monarchs, 95 ; false application of the word, 96: 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 373 

incidents corroboratory thereof, 98 ; home competition and the manufacture 
of brick, 99 ; the principle applicable to other industries, 99. 

MoNROs (President) : urges Congress to afford Protection to American Manu- 
factures, 144. 

M0XT.A.NA : 286, 322. 

MoxTRE.\L : 28. 

MooaE (Sir Henry) : 123. 

MooHS : honored and practised industry, 16. 

Moscow : 190 = 191. 

Mountains (The Rocky) : 321. 

MuDGE (Hon E. R.) : 28V ; on the perfection of American Woollen machinery, 
299 ; cost of production, 300. 

Mdxgo : its nature and uses, 289. 

K.i^poLEON I. : 23 = his Berlin Decree, 111 ; his MUan, 112 = 136 = 189 = 191 = 
194 = 206. 

N.\.poLEON III. : 315. 

Nashua (N. H.) : 138, 167. 

Navigation L.\ws : 231. 

Nebraska : 37. 

Nelson (Admiral) : 188. 

NiVADA : gold-mining in, reference to, 31. 

Nsw Brunswick : 229. 

New England : the poverty of the District of Maine a proverb in, 19, 37 ; Chi- 
nese fabrics once worn extensively in, 4.5 = 55 = ; Bankruptcy in, following 
the war of 1812 -14, 62 ; Banks of, during the war of 1812-14, 72 = 245 = 
254 = 311 = 331 = 352. 

New Hampshir-c : 63 = 133 = 134 = 187 = 252 = 286. 

New Jersey : 134 = 151 = 152 = 274. 

New Mexico : 321. 

Newport : 122. 

Newspapers : author's experience as a manufacturer of, 100. 

Newton (Hon. Thomas, of Virginia) : reference to the Speeches of, 34 = 109 = 
reports as chairman from the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures in 
favor of Protection, 115 ; extracts from that report, 116. 

New York (City) : commerce of. 26 ; reference to a merchant of, 28 ; the prices 
of bulky staples in, mainly quoted by Free-Traders, 33 = 37 = ; the New York 
merchants memorialize Congress in favor of Protective measures, 1817, 63: 
progress of the City, 121 ; population 1790-1860, 122 ; her rivals, 122 ; com- 
pletion of the Erie Canal, 126 ; its beneficial influence on New York, 126 ; the 
same arguments as Free-Traders use employed against it, 128 = 153 = value 
of Real Estate in, 263 ; taxation in, 265 ; government and politicians, 266 = 
274 = 294 = 316. 

New York (The State of) : 123 ; canals of, in 1791, 125 ; completes the Erie Ca- 
nal, 126 ; results, 126 = 128 = 134 = 137 = 151 = 153 = 252 = 286. 

Nic.iR.iGUA : 26. 

NiLES (Uezekiah) : 34 = 133. 

Nitre : 234. 

Norfolk (Va.) : 122. 

No.^MAN Conquest : 186. 

North Canaan : 340. 

Northern States : 138. 

Norway : 308, 312, 313. 

Notes (Treasury) : = 73 =» 



374 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Nova Scotia : 148 = 225 = 229. 

Oak: 230. 

Ohio : 122 = 134 = 262. 

Old World : products of, allusion, 29. 

Olive : 24l. 

Opdvke (Hon George): on the law of exportation, 230. 

ORx^gon : 244. 

Owen (Hon. Robert Dale) : on the lazzaroni of Naples, 23. 

Pacific Mills (The) : Wages of Labor, 301. 

Palestine: observation of Ross Browne, 22 ; cheapness of labor in, 23 

Palmyra : 42. 

Paper: price of, largely enhanced in 1862,214; effort to reduce the duty on, 
defeated, 215 ; ultimate benefit realized, 216. 

Paris : 189 = 191 = 197 = 308. 

Parliament {British) : 93. 

Paraguay : 319. 

Pauperism : can only be banished by industrial training, 17. 

Peaches : abundant, but unremunerative, 274 

Pennsylvania : = 48 = 97 = 124 = 134 = 230 = 244 = 252 = 331. 

PERF2CTI0KISTS (Community of) : 285- 

Perry (Professor) : 305 ; condemns (as a Free Trade writer) Trades TJnions, 34Su 

Peru: 152. 

Peter (the Czar) allusion, 23. 

Peto (Sir Morton) : on American Ship-building, 224. 

Petroleum : 234. 

Pharaohs : the, 274. 

Philadelphia: population of, 1790-1860, 122. 

Piano-makers : 284. 

PI3RCE (President) : 57. 

PiNTARD (John) : 222. 

Pittsburg : 97 = 124 = 152 = 173 = 244 = 

Ploughs (American) ■ 105, 146. 

Poland : 206 = 312 = 314 

Political Ecokomy : the chief end of a true, 29 = 218 = ; its true object, 282 = 
337. 

Polk (President) : 97 = 287. 

POMSROY (" Brick") : 305 

Pompeii: 42. 

Portland (Me.) : on the Tariff of '28 = 253. 

Portugal : 140 = 174 = 288 = 312 = 314 = 

Post (Evening) : 135 = 222 = ; a leading champion of Free Trade, 246 ; on pre- 
diction, 247 ; prophesying, 248 ; proved a folse prophet, 251 : exults over New 
England, 254; impugns the motives of those who voted for the Tariff of '28, 
254 ; predicts universal smuggling, 255 ; refuted by the event, 259 = 303. 

Predictions (Free Trade) : success of Protection at former periods a guide at 
the present, 246 ; the Evening Post a leading champion of Free Trade, 246 ; 
the rule of verification it proposes, 247 ; Protection and the Tariffs 1789 - 1824, 
247 ; the Post's predictions of utter ruin from the Tariff of 1824, 247 ; com- 
pletely falsified, 247 ; the country favors higher protection in 1828, 247 ; Free 
Trade allegations as to the effect of Protection on Prices and Revenue, 247 ; 
Dr. Cooper's anticipations of a decline in the Revenue, 249 ; the Post's en- 
dorsement of Mr. Cambreleng's remarks on the Revenue, 249 ; Resolutions 
against Protection based upon injury to the Revenue, 250 ; entire fallacy of 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 375 

thg Vrce Trade predictions demonstrated, 251 ; Free Trade prophecies again 
falsified by events, 251 ; the Tariff of 1828, 262 ; how supported, 252 ; hostile 
demonstrations when enacted, 253 ; the Post and New England, 254 ; the 
Post's comments on the expected enactment of the Tariff, 1828, 254 ; the 
Posfs predictions as to its effects when passed, 255 •, summary thereof, 258 ; 
United States Tonnage, Exports and Imports, 1817 - 32, 259 ; Imports from 
England and Scotland, 260 ; foreign trade not the true measure of the growth 
or thrift of a people, 260 ; application of the statistics quoted, 260; complete 
fallacy of the Post's predictions, 261 ; Mr. Clay on the contrasted influences 
of Free Trade and Protection, 1832, 261. 

PRESiDii^iTS : reference to the messages of our earlier, 34. 

Prices : the high, charged in inter-oceanic commerce, 28 ; prices of home pro- 
ducts equalized by Protection, 32 ; prices at seaboard habitually quoted by 
Free-Traders, 33 ; misapplication of the word " monopoly," 97 ; prices governed 
by the cost of production, 98 ; effect of domestic competition on the price of 
Brick, 99; inconsistency between the teachings and practice of Free-Traders 
in regard to supposed profits, 100 ; the Free Trade assumption regarding the 
influence of the Tariff on prices, 100 ; personal experience stated, 100 ; the 
progress of the Starch manufacture cited, 101 ; an illustration, by Mr. Clay, 
of the subject, 101 ; the Tariff of 1842 and the price of cotton fabrics, 102 ; 
Samuel Lawrence on the price of cotton fabrics before and after the Tariff of 
1842, 102, 103 ; price reduced abroad in anticipation of the Tariff of 1842, 103 ; 
the Tariff of 1842 reduces the prices of Hardware and Cotton goods, 104 ; an 
immediate reduction not invariable, 104 ; the general propositions on the 
subject, 104 ; Free Trade evidence in support thereof, 104 ; home production 
the cheapest, 105 ; domestic competition sufficient to regulate prices, 105 ; cost 
the general measure of price, 106; prices of Foreign Iron enhanced under the 
Revenue Tariff of 1846, 174 ; influence of the Labor on the cost of the produc- 
tion of Iron, 177 ; the evils attending dependence on the products of cheap 
labor, 179 ; the price of Iron measured by the cost of production, 184 ; gen- 
uine cheapness only attainable by Protection, 185 ; Dr. Wayland's statement 
respecting the price of Sugar in France, 193 ; complete fallacy thereof, 193 ; 
error of the Free Trade as.sumption of the effect of duties on the price of Home 
products, 194 ; cheap Sugar attained in France by Protection, 195 ; gradual 
reduction of the price of Beet Sugar, 197 ; relative price of Beet and Imported 
Sugars in France, 198 ; Price of Iron cheapened by Protection, 218 ; why 
prices are inflated, 236 ; Specie payments in connection with prices, 241 ; av- 
erage price of Wool for the thirty-five years preceding 1860, 290 ; prices of 
Wool October, 1860, 1866, 1869, 294 ; price of Wool and Woollens since the 
Tariff of 1867, 294 ; price of Wool in Great Britain, 294 ; prices of Woollens 
1859 and 1869 compared, 295 ; clothes-making referred to as an instance of 
how dependence on foreign markets operates, 338 - 40 ; cheap Sugar attained 
in France by Protection, 342; all Protected Manufactures have reduced in 
price, 343 ; relative cost of Labor in the United States and Europe, in con- 
nection with the cost of some articles, 343 ; Free-Traders' inconsistencies in 
regard to the supposed effect of Duties on Prices, 349, 350. 

PRrNTS : 343. 

Produce : 236, 239. 

Production : affected by conflicts between Capital and Labor, 86 ; increased by 
the invention of Machinery, 273. 

Products (Farm) : 138. 

Protection : the fundamental ideas on vhich it is ba.«ed war on Slavery, 24 ; as 
a means of securing home competition, 32 ; has secured products at a lower 



376 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

cash price than when imported, 33 ; the considerations which goTemed our 
early champions of, 34 ; General Jackson's letter in favor of a Protective 
Tariff, 35 ; the faUacy that Protection would confine the feirmer to one mar. 
ket 36 ; the Free Trade cavil about indiscriminate, 37 ; cheapness attained 
by,'48 ; the triumphs we will attain under, 49 ; memorial of New York mer- 
chants in favor of, 63 ; secures lower prices for cotton fabrics in 1842, 104 ; 
general propositions relative to its bearing on prices, 104 to 107 ; Free Trade 
evidence in support thereof, 104 ; cost the general measure of price under, 
106 ; alleged exceptions explained, 106 ; Protection secures the manufacture 
of patented articles here instead of abroad, 107 ; the great men of the early 
years of the Republic directly or indirectly connected with Agriculture, 108 ; 
nearly unanimous in favor of Protection, 108 ; beUeved it essential in the 
interest of Agriculture, 108 ; Washington advises the promotion of manufac- 
tures, 109; action of Congress thereon, 109; Alexander Hamilton's Report, 
109 ; a Standing Committee on Commerce and Manufactures created, 110 ; 
Washington affirms his former views, 110 ; Jefferson on the objects of the 
Federal government. 111 ; also on the maintenance of Protection, 112 ; Madi- 
son advocates the Protection and Encouragement of Manufactures, 112- 
114 ; Dallas recommends the policy of Protection, 115 ; Thomas Newton's 
(of Virginia) Report from the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures in 
favor of Protection, 115; Calhoun favors Protection, 117 ; the advantages of 
the measure he sustained, 118 ; reference to the messages of eminent Govern- 
ors in favor of Protection, 118; the attention which the views of the Fathers 
merit, 119 ; the motives that guided them, 119 ; the founders of the Republic 
conversant with Free Trade arguments, 133 ; John Randolph of Roanoke 
leads the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133 ; the reasons which governed the 
action of the various States in 1824, 133, 134 ; Dr. Lieber's statement con- 
sidered, 135 ; the fallacy therein, 136 ; the benefit of Protection to the Agri- 
culturist, 136 ; secures the £irmer manufactures at less cost in Produce, 136 ; 
Distant markets fluctuating, 136 ; exhaustion of the soil, 137 ; Protection in- 
creases the value of farm products. Timber, &c., 138; Londonderry, N. H., 
an illustration thereof, 139 ; corroborated by the action of the Canadian 
farmers, 139 ; Franklin on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home 
Manufactures, 139 ; Henry C. Carey on the value to farmers of near markets, 
140 ; E. B. Ward on the necessity for Protection, 141 ; Adam Smith on the 
value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 141 ; Rev. Lyman Beecher on the 
Protection and encouragement of Manufactures, 141, 142 ; President Monroe 
favors Protection, 144; The American System, 145; economy attained in the 
price of articles by Protection, 146 ; the preamble of the first Tariff declares 
for Protection, 147; the special claim of Manufactures to Protection, 148; 
reasons why they need it, 150 ; evidences of progress in Iron production, 173 ; 
Price of Foreign Iron enhanced under the Revenue Tariff of 1846, 174 ; Hon. 
D. J. MorreU on the progress which can be attained under Protection, 176 ; 
Labor the main difference in the cost of foreign and American Iron, 177 ; the 
evils attending dependence on the products of cheap Labor, 179 ; the Protec- 
tive Tariff rates on Iron, 1816-61, 180 ; deceptions practiced by Free-Traders 
respecting Tariff rates, 180 ; the production of Pig Iron increasing, 181 ; eva- 
sions of the Tariff, 182 ; the price of commodities measured by the cost of pro- 
duction, 184; detrimental effects of unsteadiness in our past policy, 185; the 
beneficial results that would follow stability in the Tariff, 185 ; a genuine 
cheapness attainable only by Protection, 185 ; introduction of the Sugar-Cane 
in Europe, 186 ; the progress of the Sugar industry under Protection, 187 ; 
origin of Beet Sugar, 187 ; history of its introduction, 188 ; circumstances fe.' 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 377 

Torable to its deyelopment, 189 ; scarcity of Sugar in France, 189 ; Napoleon 
promotes its manufacture, 190 ; its extensive production an enduring evidence 
of his genius, 191 ; permanent cliaract«r and success of tUe Beet Sugar Indus- 
try, 192; tlie Free-lraders ridicule the French Protective policy, 192; Dr 
Wayland's misrepresentations and anticipations, 193 ; falsity of the Free Trade 
assumption of the effect of duties ou the price of Home Products, 19i ; later 
difficulties of the Beet Sugar Industry, 194 ; x-ates of duty on Sugar in France, 
195 ; the immense production and consumption of Beet Sugar in France, 196 ; 
its gradual reduction in price, 197 ; the Protection accorded to Beet Sugar in 
France, 198 ; the relative prices of Beet and Cane Sugar in France, 198 ; Pro- 
tection in relation to harmony of interests, 199 ; the French Sugar industry 
in relation to general industry, 199 ; in regard to Agriculture, 200 ; in respect 
to Cattle-raising, 200 ; the residuum in the Beet Sugar Manufacture utilized, 
201 ; labor benefited by the Beet Sugar Industry, 202 ; a proof of the value 
of diversified industry secured by Protection, 203 ; Beet Sugar Industry ia 
Germany, 204 ; its progress, 206 ; the value of encouragement to this industry, 
206 ; its early progress in Europe, 206 ; statistics thereof, 207 ; our imports of 
Sugar and Molasses, 1862-66, 208; Beet Sugar exported to England, 209; 
the Free Trade version of the history of the French Beet Sugar Industry, 209 ; 
the general benefits secured through its Protection, 211 ; a Free Trade docu- 
ment given, 212 ; the principles on which Free Trade doctrines and Protection 
are based, 213 ; cheapness not to be obtained by dependence on foreign mar- 
kets, 214 ; Paper as an instance, 214 ; Iron in connection with Ship-building, 
216 ; abundance of Iron ores in Virginia, 217 ; the variable Protection afforded 
to the Iron Industry, 218 ; some Free Trade misrepresentations respecting Iron 
explained, 219 ; Free Trade anticipations of the ruin of Commerce and Naviga- 
tion examined, 220 ; increa?e in United States Tonnage following the Tariff of 
1824, 221 ; increase in the Revenue following the Tariff of 1824, 223; the de- 
cline in Ship-building general and not caused by Protection to American In- 
dustry, 225 27 ; the necessary excess of Exports over Imports, 235 ; deceptive 
representations of the Tariff Rates, 237 : no essential change in the present 
Tariff recommended, 240 ; importance of increased Production, 241 ; our pres- 
ent industrial progression must continue unless Protection is removed, 243; 
rapid development of our Manufacturing Industry, 244 ; value of Manufac- 
tures to Agriculture, 245 ; effects of Protection at former periods a guide at 
the present, 246; Protection and the Tariff, 1789 1816. 247; the Evening 
Post predicts utter ruin from the Tariff of 1824, 247 : completely falsified, 247 ; 
confirmed by the country favoring Protection in 1828,247; Free Trade alle- 
gations as to the effect of Protection on Prices and Revenue, 249 ; Dr. Cooper's 
anticipations of a decline in the Revenue. 249; Free Trade predictions, 249, 
250 ; their fallacy demonstrated by results, 251 ; success of Protection, 1824- 
28, 252; demonstrations on the passage of the Protective Tariff, 1828,253: the 
Post's predictions as to its effect^:, 254-258: .summary thereof, 258 ; United 
States Tonnage, Exports and Imports, 1817-32, 259 ; foreign trade not a true 
measure of national growth, 260; Mr. Clay on the contra.sted influences of 
Free Trade and Protection, 1832, 261 : Free Trade inconsistencies reg:irding 
rai.siug revenue by Customs Duties, 271 : the relation between Protection and 
Cooperation , 283 ; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290-292 ; compared with former 
Tariffs, 293 ; the character of the TariflR* since 1824, 2ft3 : Protection stimulates 
Production, and reduces Prices, 294 ; the results of Protection as applied to 
Wool and Woollens, 296 ; great improvements in the quality and finish of our 
Woollens, 297 ; American Woollen manufactures compared with European, 
299 ; why Protection is necessary, 300 j the results detailed of Protection to 



378 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

our Wool and Woollen Industry since 1861, 302 ; statement of the Evening 
Post on Protection to the Woollen Trade, 303 ; the inference therefrom, 304; 
inconsistencies of its statements with actual facts, 304 ; a Protective policy 
increases the immigration of skilleil labor, 317, 319 ; nature can be the only 
legitimate impediment to manufactures, 337 ; the operation of foreign trade, 
838,339; results to be expected from dependence on foreign supplies, 339 ; 
profitable influence of Protection, 340 ; another name for National Coopera- 
tion, 340 ; extended benefits of Protection, 341 ; its beneficent effect, in regard 
to Beet Sugar in France, 342 ; a genuine cheapness secured in all Protected 
manufactures, 343 ; the cost of Labor the only main difference in the cost of 
some products, 344 ; Protection in such cases dictated by national interests, 
344 ; a fraternal feeling should take the place of Competition, 344 ; Free Trade 
in antagonism with Trades Unions, 345; Professor Perry on Trades Unions, 
346 ; Government should be as vigilant for the Protection of Labor as for 
other Property, 349 ; inconsistency of Free-Traders in advocating a Revenue 
Tariff, 349 ; eminent Americans favored Protection in the interests of Agricul- 
ture, 351 ; did so from enlightened reasons and experience, 351 ; deceptive use 
of the word Monopoly , 352 ; the Free-Traders' appeals to supposed sectional in- 
terests, 352 ; the favorable influence of Protection on Immigration, 353 ; Pro- 
tection always a sheet-anchor of Prosperity and a main-spring of Progress, 353. 

PcRiTAKs(The): 311. 

Pyramids (The): 42. 

Railroad (The Pacific) : 321. 

Railroads : =90 = ; the Panama, allusion, 90 ; the Pacific, allusion, 90 = 342. 

Randolph (John, of Roanoke) : led the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133. 

Rappites : the conununity of, 285. 

Rat (Dr.): 120. 

Rebellion : Shay's, '233 ; the Southern, 235. 

Rent : 266. 

Representatives (House of) : A Standing Committee on Commerce and Manu- 
factures formed by, 110 = 206. 

Repudiation : 288 ; a crime and a misfortune, 243 = 314. 

Reunion': 195. 

Revenue : failure of, in 1840 - 42, 93 ; increased by the Tariff of 1824, 221 ; also 
by that of 1828, 251 = 258 = 260. 

Revolution (French) : 312. 

Rhode Island : 37 = 133 = 134 = 167 = 

Rice : decrease in the production of, 22i. 

Rochdale : 89 = 278 = 2^ = 280. 

Rodney (Admiral) ; 188. 

roebling : 319. 

Roman Empire : 61. 

Romans, the: 298. 

Rothschilds: 28. 

Russia : 207 = 236 = 288 = 312. 

St. Etienne: 284. 

St. Helena : 191. 

St. Lawrence (the River) : 225. 

St. Thomas : 319. 

Saladin : empire of, allusion, 16 

Salt: unfair comparisons made in the price of, 33; produced in the interior, 33; 
an instance of coat largely enhanced by transportation, 33 = 147 = 343 = 352. 

Saracens: 16 = 186. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 379 

Sardinia : 312. 

Satinets : 343. 

Scott (Vfalter, Sir): 52. 

ScRsws : misrepresentations respecting the influence of Protection on the price 
of, 106. 

Scythes: American, 105. 

SacEssrox: 243. 

SavBSRT (Hon. Adam) : 309. 

Seymour (W.Digby): 203. 

Shakers : the community of, 285. 

Shawls : 343. 

Sheep : 201 ; number in 1850 and 1860, 287 ; why sheep husbandry should be 
extended, 287 ; sheep in Australia and South America, 288 ; sheep husbandry 
in Great Britain, 294. 

SnsETiNGs : 343. 

Smp-BuiLDWC (American): cheapness not to be obtained by dependence on for- 
eign markets, 214 ; Paper an instance, 214-18 ; Iron in connection with ship- 
building, 216 ; our great facilities for Iron production, 217 ; some Free Trade 
fallacies in regard to Iron explained, 219 ; the mistake of expecting foreign 
supplies at a fixed price, 219 ; Mr Webster's anticipations in 1824, 220 ; their in- 
correctness, 221; United States Tonnage, 1820 -28, 221; the Tarififof 1824and 
American Tonnage, 221, 222 ; memorial from the New York Chamber of Com- 
merce, 222; incorrectness of its calculations, 223 ; matters which control the 
progress of our ship-building, 223 ; Sir Morton Peto on American Ship-Build- 
ing, 224 ; Shipping sold to foreigners before and during the war, 224 ; decline 
of ship-building in Canada, 225 ; its depressed condition in England, 1868-69, 
226; general and permanent depression of ship-building on the Thames, 227; 
on the law of foreign commerce, 229 ; Ship-Building at Wilmington, Del., 230; 
our experience in Ocean Steamship trading, 231 ; impediments to its extension, 
232 ; our prospects in regard to ship-building and navigation generally, 232. 

Shovels : American, 105. 

Sn,EsiA: 206. 

Silk : the climate of California and the silkworm, 48 = 335. 

Sinking Fund : 238. 

Silver : 241 = 321. 

Skill : the great legacy we have received in, 44 ; its vital importance, 44 ; want 
of skill in China, 45 ; machinery in England, 45 ; competes prejudicially with 
the labor of Eastern Asia, 45 ; Chinese cotton fabrics superseded by foreign 
products, 45 ; English manufactures and India, 45 ; her true industrial policy, 
45 ; belief once entertained that the country should be exclusively agricul- 
tural, 46 ; the ultimate effect of such policy, 46 ; all great inventive triumphs 
the result of gradual progress, 47 ; only manufacturing countries produce 
labor-saving machinery, 47 ; indebtedness of Europe to American invention, 
47 ; caused by our advance from dependence on Europe, 47 ; superiority of 
some branches of American industry, 47 ; industry promotes new inventions, 
48; iron, 48 ; cheapness attained by Protection, 48 ; the progress of invention, 
48 ; the field of future achievements, 48 = 349. 

Slavery : engenders contempt for and avoidance of labor, 16; inimical to the 
elevation of labor, 24 ; the idea of Protection implacably at war with Slavery, 
llenry Clay never in sympathy with the Slavery Propaganda, 24 ; John C. 
Calhoun adopts Free Trade principles because of Slavery, 24 ; each factory in 
the South regarded as a citadel of abolition, 24 ; Slavery disappearing, 81; 
its former revival, 81 ; its extension, 81 ; circumstances which favored it, 81 J 



380 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

one of the oldest conditions of systematic industry, 82 ; the circumstances 
under which it originated, 82 ; creates an aversion for lahor, 82 ; the semi- 
civilization it promotes, 83 ; Chinese immigration and its bearings, 83; the 
i Wages system an immense advance on Slavery, 83; destroys all incentive to 
labor, 87 ; its intolerance of inquiry or discussion, 88. 

Smith (Adam) : his statement that the employment each one prospers in is the 
best for the community, 128 ; its fallacy demonstrated, 129 ; reference to, 
138 ; on the value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 141. 

Smith (Ashbel, Colonel) : testimony in favor of American axes, 47. 

SraiH (Capt. John) : 317. 

Snyder (Simon, Governor) : 34 = 118 = 351. 

SoDTHERN States : their relation to Protection, 24; the South of 1815-60 had 
all the elements of manufacturing prosperity but intelligent labor, 25 ; the 
anti-Protectionists of, led by Randolph, 1824, 133 = 138 = 218 = 235 = 245. 

Spades : American, 105 = 343. 

SP.UN : 288 = 313 = 314. 

Spaniards: 81 = 186. 

Spanish Main : 81. 

Sparta : iron money of, 77. 

Specie Payments : = 72 = 74 = ; consequences of, and why opposed, 239 ; how 
to effect Resumption of, 240. 

Starch : an instance of price reduced by Protection, 101. 

State, The : its relation to usury laws, 70 ; the Free Trade theory of the duty of 
the State, 120 ; it affirms that taxes should be raised only to maintain law and 
order, 120 ; cases which demonstrate its futility, 121 ; the purchase of Louisi- 
ana, 120 ; Chicago water- works, 121 ; progress of New York City, 121 ; relative 
progress of New York and Philadelphia, 122 ; the rivalry of other places, 122 
canal projects, 122 ; interest taken therein by Washington and Colles, 123 - 125 
Washington's views on the subject, 124 ; the course open to Pennsylvania, 125 
Fulton's suggestion to, 125 ; Erie Canal and its beneficial effects, 126 ; the pro- 
ject vehemently opposed, 126 ; the position of New York due to deviation from 
Free Trade doctrine, 127 ; the Canal policy of New York opposed on the same 
grounds as the National Protective is now, 128 ; Adam Smith's statement that 
the employment each individual prospers in is the most advantageous for the 
community, 128 ; fallacious and mistaken, 129 ; demonstration thereof, 129; 
Free Trade principles as contained in the Petition of the London Merchants, 
129 ; its essential propositions quoted, 130 ; its first assumption involving the 
dictum of Adam Smith, 130 ; its statement that a nation always imports wisely, 
131 ; that the best distribution of labor is thus caused, 131 ; practical opera- 
tion of this principle, 131 ; our accumulated foreign debt at the sacrifice of 
nacional interests, 132 ; a lavish increase of imports leads to depression and 
calamity, 132. 

Steel : 147 = 154. 

Stephenson (George) : 319. 

Stores (Union) : 280. 

Strikes ; Report on, to the British Parliament, 93 = 278. 

Suez (Canal) : 90. 

Sugar : in general favor, 186 ; introduction of the Sugar-Cane into Europe, 186 ; 
definitions of Sugar by Johnson and Webster compared, 187 ; origin of Beet 
Sugar, 187 ; history of its introduction, 188 ; circumstances favorable to its 
development, 189 ; scarcity of Sugar in France, 189 ; Napoleon promotes its 
manufacture, 190 ; its extensive production an enduring evidence of his 
genius, 191 ; permanent character and success of the Beet Sugar Industry, 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 381 

19? ; opposition to, and doubts of its development, 192 ; Dr. Wayland's mis- 
representjitions and anticipations, 193 ; falsity of the Free Trade assumption 
as to the eifect of duties on the price of home products, 194 ; later diffloulties 
of the Beet Sugar Industry, 194 ; the rates of duty on Sugar in France, 195 ; 
the great production of Beet Sugar in France, 196 ; gradual reduction in its 
price, 197 ; the relative price of Beet and Cane Sugars in France, 198 ; effect 
of the development of Beet Sugar manufacture on the general industry of 
France, 199 ; on agriculture, 199, 200 ; on cattle-raising, 200 ; the residuum 
in the manufacture of Beet Sugar utilized, 201 ; share of labor in the Beet 
Sugar Industry, 202 ; increases the yield of Wheat in Belgium, 203 ; the evi- 
dence of the value of diversified industry afforded, 203 ; Beet Sugar Industry 
in Germany, 204 ; its progress, 205 ; the Commissioner of Agriculture's Report 
on Beet Sugar Industry, 206 ; its early progress in Europe, 206 ; statistics of 
production, 207; our Imports of Sugar and Molasses, 1862-66, 208; Beet 
Sugar exported to England, 208 ; the Free Trade version of the history of the 
French Beet Sugar Industry, 209 ; the benefit secured through Protection by 
the Sugar Industry, 211 ; a Free Trade document given, 211 ; the principles 
on which Free Trade doctrines and Protection are based, 213 ; decrease in the 
production of, 224 = 241 = its production promoted by the present Tariff, 272 ; 
introduction of Beet Sugar Manufacture, 272 ; the wisdom of Protection ex- 
emplified in France, 342. 

Superior (Lake) : 152 = 173 = 174. 

Sweden : 207 = 312 = 313 

Switzerland : 308 = 312 = 313 = 314. 

Tariff : the, of 1816 framed and advocated by Calhoun, 24 ; the Protective, of 
1861, 25 ; relation of foreign, on the price of Indian corn, 37 ; the tariff of 1816 
mainly framed by William Lowndes, 62; proved inadequate, 62; the Mer- 
chants of New York ask for an increase of, 1817, 63; the tariff of 1828 secures 
our industry from ruinous foreign competition, 93 ; effects of the tariff of 1833, 
93 ; the effort to increase the Tariff of 1816, 96 ; a Senator's argument agiiinst 
it, 96 ; misapplication of the word " monopoly " in connection with, 9l3 ; the 
tariff of 1816,96 ; contemplated general revision of, 97 ; incidents corroboratory 
of the misapplication of the word " monopoly," 93 ; the tariff of 1842 imposes 
a duty on Starch, 101 : result, 101; tariff of 1842 and the prices of cotton fab- 
rics, 102 ; prices of Hardware under a Revenue and a Protective tariff, 103 ; 
draft of the tariff of 1816 submitted by Dallas, 115; William Lowndes reports 
the tariff adopted, 1816, 116 : its salient features, 117 ; reasons which gov- 
erned the action of the various States respecting the Tariff of 1824, 133 : blun- 
der made in breaking down in 1846 the tariff of 1842. 174 ; effect of the Revenue 
Tariff on the prices of Foreign Iron, 174 ; Protective Tariff nates on Iron from 
1824-61, 180; Free Trade misrepresentations about the duty on Pig Iron, 
180 ; evasions of the Tariff, 183 ; the Tariff of 1816, 217 ; of 1824, 220 = 235 = 
237 = ; deceptive representations respecting the Tariff rates, 237 ; the Revenue 
Tariff question, 239 ; no essential difference in the Tariff recommended, 240 ; 
Protection and the Tariffs of 1789-1816, 247; the Tariff of 1828,252; how 
supported in Congress, 252; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290 ; compared with for- 
mer Tariffs, 293 ; the character of the Tariffs since 1824. 293 ; the Wool Tariff 
of 1867, 294 ; tariff of 1824, 298 : Ad Valorem and Specific rates defined. 323 ; 
the minimum principle, when introduced, 323 ; the cardin.-il obj<><'tion to Ad 
Valorem rates, 323 ; the Iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the working of the 
Tariff of 1846, 325 ; demonstrated by the fluctuating prices of Iron, 325 : their 
injurious effect on American industry, 325 ; Specific Duties strongly preferred 
in Europe, 327 ; the tariff of the Zoll verein, 328 ; evidence of Mr. John Dillon 



382 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

on levying duties by weight and Ad Valorem, 328 ; Hon. James Thompson and 
the Tariff question, 331 ; why the minimum principle is required, 331 ; nego- 
tiations of the French Treaty of 1860, 332; the French reject the ad valorem 
principle, 332 ; the British view of the French tariff examined, 334; the most 
advisable course to pursue in fixing duties, 334 ; Free-Traders' inconsistent 
policy respecting a Revenue Tariff, 349, 334. 
T.4.RIFF (Revenue) : the Free-Traders inconsistent in supporting, 271. 
Tadmor : 42. 
Tax (Income) ; 241. 

Taxation : pernicious effect of the inequalities of Turliish taxation, 23 ; the 
Free Trade doctrine which would limit taxation to the maintenance of law and 
order, 120 ; wise deviation therefrom in Chicago and New York, 121 ; bene- 
ficial result, 121 ; the City of New York as evidence, 121 ; effect of the excise 
tax on the French Beet Sugar Industry, 1837, 194 ; Direct, 251 ; Direct and 
Indirect defined, 264 ; assumptions in favor of Direct Taxation examined, 265 ; 
the working of Direct Taxation in New York, 265 ; Taxation in New York 
city, 266 ; its application to theories on Taxation, 267 : Progressive Taxation, 
267 ; tendency to impose Taxation on property, 238 ; M. Thiers on equality of 
Taxation, 268 ; the relative facility of earning a livelihood now and ten years 
ago, 269 ; the Taxation necessitated by the War, 270 ; Free-Traders' incon- 
sistencies regarding raising revenue by Customs Duties, 271 ; why by Cus- 
toms Duties preferable, 271 ; advantages of raising Revenue by Customs Du- 
ties, 272 ; evidence thereof, 272. 

Taxes (Internal) : 72. 

Tba : in connection with the principle of Protection, 30 ; grown almost wholly 
in China, Japan, and India, 30 ; its enhanced cost from being a foreign pro- 
duct, 31 ; how labor might be wisely applied from traflic in, to the production 
of, 31 ; price not reduced in England by the reduction of the duty, 105 = 
241 = ; the culture of the Tea-plant encouraged by the present Tariff, 272. 

Tehuantepec (Isthmus of) : 26. 

Tennessee : the tea-plant in, 30 = 134 = 244= 252 = 272. 

Tennyson : 50 = 246. 

Texas : 47. 

Thames (The River) : 226 = 227 = 228. 

Thebes : 26 = 42. 

Thiers (Adolphe) : on the Right of Property, 50 = 136 = ; on direct and indi' 
rect taxation, 264 ; on Property and Labor, 268. 

Thompson (Hon. James) : 329. 

Timber: 225. 

Times (The London) : 331. 

Times (The New York) : on the decline of ship-building on the Thames, 227, 229. 

Tobacco : decrease in the production of, 224 = 241 = 339. 

ToD (James) : 34. 

Tompkins (Daniel, Governor) : 34 = 118. 

Tonnage (United States) : from 1820 to 1828 inclusive. 221 ; effect of Tariff of 
1824 thereon, 222 ; yearly aggregate from 1817 to 1832, 259. 

Trade : the prizes in the lottery of, preferred to tlie rewards of productive In- 
dustry, 27 = 276. 

Trades Unions : 278 ; Free Trade antagonism to, 345. 

Trafalgar: 189. 

Traffic : the present an age of, 26 ; the recent growth and development of, 26 ; 
influence of the hopes of gain by, 27. See Commerce. 

Treasuet (Federal): 238, 309. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 383 

Thibunk (The) : 215. 

Trov (N. Y. ; : Iron Moulders' Cobperation. 285. 

Turkey: the Turks, allusion, 16 ; taxation in, 23 ; the Turks Slaveholders, 24. 

Tyne (The River) : 228, 229. 

U.MON' SroRr.s : 89. 

Umted S.AT s : 31; labor and capital dearer than in Canada, 38; ita markets 
inaccessible to Canadian manufactures, 38 = 73 = 225 = 228 = 287 = 288 = 
303. 

Usury : the legitimacy of legalized unlimited, considered, 69 ; conditions oa 
which usury laws might be modified, 71. 

Van B0RBN (Hon. Martin) : 135 ; votes for the Tariff of 1828, 252. 

Vegetables : 243 = 252 = 274. 

Verplanck (Hon. Gulian C): asserts that Protection must destroy Revenue, 
250. 

Vbrmoot : barter general in, 1821 - 31, 61 = 134 = 168 = 252. 

ViRGEsu : = 34 = 115 = 122 = 134 ; the Iron and Coal Lauds in, 217 = 244 = ; 
colony of, 317. 

Wages : decreased by the influx of British goods at the close of the war of 
1812-14,62 ; Wages system an immense advance on Slavery, 83 ; circumstan- 
ces under which Immigration is undesirable, 83 ; improvidence caused by the 
Wages system, 85 ; foments hostility between Capital and Labor, 85 ; works 
habitual injustice between man and man, 86 ; its injustice to the skilful and 
industrious, 87 ; Slavery destroys all incentive to labor, 87 ; its intolerance 
of inquiry or discussion, 88 ; the Wages system enjoys no immunity from 
criticism, 88; affords a field for inquiry, 88; its comparative merit.s, 88; 
prospects of a better system, 88 ; whaling industry prosecuted on a coopera- 
tive basis, 88; other cooperative enterprises, 89, 90; their experimental 
character, 90; possibility of modifioatiou if they fail, 90; evidence thereof, 
90 ; the power of associated capital, 90 ; conditions necessary for the success 
of the cooperative principle, 90 ; defect of the wages system as a means to 
its development, 91 ; the value of one successful effort, 90 ; the evil influence 
of Competition, 90 ; Louis Blanc on Competition, 92 ; correctness of his re- 
marks demonstrated in the United States, 93 ; commercial disaster extended 
by Free Trade, 94, 273 ; the rates of Wages paid at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence, 
Mass., 301; compared with the wages paid in England, 301 ; statistics of the 
savings of the workpeople at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 302. See Go- 
oper.\tion. Labor, Slavery. 

W.u,THAM (Mass.) : 155. 

War : our revolutionary, mainly carried on with Continental Money, 72 ; War 
Finance, 73; Civil w.ar, 73 = 214 = ; of Independence, 233; civil, 234 = 242 = ; 
of 1812, 259; civil, 269. 

Ward (E. B.) : on the necessity for and objects of Protection, 141. 

Wares : 134 = 136 = 147 = 154 = 172 =249 = 283 = 343. 

Warexg (George E.) : 137. 

Washington (President) : = 57 = ; action as one of the Fathers, 109 ; advises 
the promotion of manufactures in his first annual Message, 109 ; affirms his 
former view, 110; interests himself about canals, 123; the benefits to be de- 
rived from extended communication, 124 ; political reasons for effecting it, 
124 ; approves the first Tariff, 147 = 254 = 351. 

Watch : Manufacture, the, 154=: 343. 

Watt (Isaac): 319. 

Watland (Dr.) : 192 = 193 = 194. 

Wealth : man's insatiable desire for, 14 ; illusory distinction between Capital 



384 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

and Wealth, 42; incalculable value of the world's accumulated, 44 ; our in- 
debtedness to past ages, 44 I our obligations to posterity, 44 = 260. See 
Capital 

Webster (Daniel) : 18 = 72 ; Free Trade Speech in 1824, 183, 136 ; speech of; 
in 1824, in championship of Navigation and foreign commerce, 220 = 221- 

Webster (Noah) : 75 = 187. 

Wells (D. A.) : 104. 

West (The) : 217, 286, 311, 352. 

Western States : favor Protection, 1824, 133, = 138 = 218. 

West Indies : 195 = 196 = 229 = 312 = 314. 

Wheat : = 137 = 139 = 199= 203 = 204 = ; price in 1825, 215 = 217 = 338 = 
339 = 352. 

Whitaker (Joseph): Almanac of, 226. 

Whitney (Eli) : 52. 

Wilmington (Del.) : 230. 

Wisconsin : 137, 141. 

Wool, and Woollens : 106 = 147 = ; rates on, in the Tariff of 1816, 117 = ; the 
Tariff on, allusion, 247 = 259 = ; value of Imports, 297 ; number of Sheep in 
1850 and 1860, 287 ; wool product of 1850 and 1860, 287 ; why Sheep Hus- 
bandry should be extended, 287 ; the annual Wool product of the world, 288; 
circumstances which have tended to discourage Wool-growing, 288; quan- 
tity of Wool imported 1850 to 1860, 288 ; the import of Woollen fabrics, 289; 
Shoddy and Mungo, 289 ; average price of Wool for the thirty-five years pre- 
ceding 1860, 290 ; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290-292; compared with formeJ 
Tariffs, 293 ; the character of the Tariffs since 1824, 293 ; prices of Wool in Oc- 
tober, 1860, 1866, and 1869, 294 ; price of Wool in Great Britain, 294 ; prices 
of Woollens in 1859 and 1869 compared, 295 ; Wool and Woollens cheapel 
in 1869 than in 1860, 296; effect of Protection as applied to Wool and Wool- 
lens examined, 296. ; immense increase in production, 293 ; our Imports of 
Wool and Woollens in 1860 and 1868 compared, 297 ; American manufactures 
sold as foreign, 297; Woollen manufactures of Great Britain, France, and 
Belgium, 298; origin in the United States, 298; progress compared with Eu- 
ropean, 299 ; why Protection is required, 300 ; the wages paid at Pacific 
Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 301 ; compared with the wages paid in England, 301 ; 
statistics of the savings of the workpeople at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence, 
Mass., 302 ; results realized by Protection to our Wool and Woollen Industry, 
302, 303 ; Evening Post on Protection to the Woollen Trade, 303 ; the in- 
ferences to be drawn therefrom, 303; inconsistencies of its statements, 304; 
the minimum principle in connection with ; extract from Hamilton's Report 
on cheapness attained by Protection, 306 = 331 = 335 = 336 = 338 = 339 ^ 
343. 

Wright (Hon. Silas): votes for the Tariff of 1828, 252. 

Zoll-Veeein : 204 = 205 = 327 = 328. 

Zone (The Temperate) : 211. 

ZOAEITES (The community of) : 285. 



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